The Paris Observatory announced that there will be a "leap second" on June 30, making 2015 a second longer than the usual.
The clock will read 11:59:60 instead of the usual 11:59:59 on June 30 so that the atomic time will match with the Earth's rotation time. Unlike the atomic time, which remains constant, our planet's rotation is regularly delayed by around two-thousandths of a second per day.
Scientists at the International Earth Rotation Service in France are responsible for adjusting Earth's time when needed, according to The Telegraph.
"The Earth is slowing down a little bit," said Nick Stamatakos, the chief of Earth Orientation Parameters at the US Naval Observatory. "Atomic clocks keep very accurate time. The measurements are telling us 'Oh, they're slowing down.'"
The concept of the leap second started in 1972, and 2014 is the 26th time that it will happen.
"For that day [June 30] there'll be 86,401 seconds, instead of 86,400 seconds. The length of the day for you and I and everyone on the Earth will have an extra second," added Mr Stamatakos.
So how does the leap second will affect our daily lives? In 2012, the leap second caused the software of Mozilla, Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp, LinkedIn and StumbleUpon to crash. These companies were using Java, which sync their times with the atomic clocks, but they weren't able to program the software to recognize the extra second.
The United States proposed to remove the leap second as it causes precision issues in various navigation and communication systems. This proposal was rejected by Britain that wants to maintain the sync between the Sun and the atomic clocks. This plan will be discussed later in the year at the World Radiocommunication Conference, the Daily Mail reported.
"The abolition of the leap second is being considered and after around 12 years of discussion there may be a decision made later this year," said Rory McEvoy, Curator of Horology, and Royal Observatory Greenwich, to The Telegraph.
