World Timekeepers Decide to Kill the Leap Second
Doing away with the leap second might prevent time-related computer anomalies in the future.
The General Conference on Weights and Measures has decided to retire the leap second from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), ending a long-standing practice of aligning atomic time with the Earth's rotation. UTC relies on a hybrid system combining atomic time, which is highly constant, and astronomical time, which fluctuates as Earth's rotation varies.
Leap seconds were added periodically to UTC to compensate for discrepancies. However, implementing leap seconds has caused technical disruptions in computer systems, with the most significant issue occurring in 2012, causing websites and software platforms to crash. While Earth's rotation experiences minor shifts regularly, predicting future rotation speed is uncertain.
The conference estimated a 30% chance that a negative leap second might be needed by 2035, leading to concerns about potential computer anomalies. The decision to eliminate leap seconds is set to take effect on May 20, 2027. Continuous UTC will proceed without further adjustments, causing UTC and astronomical time to gradually diverge by up to an hour, which will keep UTC stable for centuries.
While this may cause minor inconveniences, the frequency of leap seconds added since their introduction in 1972 suggests that any future changes will likely be minimal.
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