Latest Universal Time Stories
John Neumann for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Did you find some of your favorite websites acting wonky this weekend? If so, you may want to blame the omniscient keepers of all knowledge for that. No, not the galaxy-sized blue-skinned creatures that keep the universe in balance, but the big brains at the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), who monitor the gaps between atomic and planetary time and work to keep everything synced. As such, these...
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Is there anything a scientist can’t do? Looking past the state of mobile computing — which is already pretty amazing, when you think about it — there are scientists and researchers who are planning trips to the moon as well as growing bio-computers, living computers, in their labs. What will they think of next? With some clever understanding of the Earth’s rotation and a little trickery, scientists at the National Physical...
An attempt to eliminate leap seconds and permanently change how time is measured has been postponed until 2015 by the International Telecommunications Union. ITU Radio-communication Assembly delegates on Thursday were unable to come to an agreement on whether to stop adding leap seconds to the world’s atomic clocks to keep them synchronized with Earth’s rotational cycles. The ITU will now spend the next three years conducting further studies “to ensure that all the technical...
Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report An engine firing on Jan. 11 will be the biggest maneuver that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft will perform on its flight between Earth and Mars. The action will use a choreographed sequence of firings of eight thruster engines during a period of about 175 minutes beginning at 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. EST or 2300 Universal Time). It will redirect the spacecraft more precisely toward Mars to land at Gale Crater. The trajectory resulting...
A British research scientist said a leap second would be tacked on to the end of 2008 to correct for eccentricities in the Earth's rotation. Peter Whibberley, a senior research scientist at Britain's National Physical Laboratory, said the world's official clock, the atomic Coordinated Universal Time, would recognize the extra second Wednesday night immediately before midnight, CNN reported. The difference between atomic time and Earth time has now built up to the point where it needs to be...
By Jim WolfWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first "leap second" in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth's rotation.The adjustment will be carried out by sticking an extra second into atomic clocks worldwide at the stroke of midnight Coordinated Universal Time, the widely adopted international standard, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology said this...
By Jim WolfWASHINGTON -- Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first "leap second" in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth's rotation.The adjustment will be carried out by sticking an extra second into atomic clocks worldwide at the stroke of midnight Coordinated Universal Time, the widely adopted international standard, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology said this...
