The stroke of midnight was a second late this year – thanks to a slowdown in the rotation of the Earth.
The International Earth Rotation Service inserted a leap-second before last night’s festivities to compensate for changes in the planet’s tidal patterns that have slowed its usual 365-day trip around the sun.
The leap second – the 20th to be added since 1972 – was added at 7 p.m. last night.
The decelerating Earth is nothing to be alarmed about, IERS officials said. The tidal effect does not mean the Earth is grinding to a halt, simply that we have become off-kilter from the unwavering atomic clock that tells the world’s time.
The Earth “slows” by one to three milliseconds per day.