You may have to wait a second longer after midnight on Saturday to welcome the New Year.
That's because 31st of December will end a second after midnight, making the year 2k5 exactly one second longer.
That's because 31st of December will end a second after midnight, making the year 2k5 exactly one second longer.
This peculiarity is because the moon's tides in the seas and oceans cause friction with the seabeds and this slows down the rate of spin of the earth or lengthening the year ever so little.
"So once in a way, an extra or leap second has to be added to bring things back to normal, much like the extra day that is added in a leap year," explains B.G. Siddharth, Director General of BM Birla Science Centre in Hyderabad.
According to Dr. Siddharth, that's not the only peculiarity of year 2005. It will end on a new moon day (amavasya) which more over is the second new moon of the month.
Two new moons in a month is also rare. But unlike the phenomenon of two full moons in a month being called a blue moon, there is no special name for two new moons in a month.
