iampowered: Time for that extra kiss at News Years Eve

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With New Years Eve coming at the end of the week, it will be time to reflect on the past year, time to snuggle with our loved ones...and time for scientists to add an extra second to the new year.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has announced that it will add one second to December 31, 2005, in an effort to keep the official Earth time up to speed with the planet's rotation.

The extra second will be added to all atomic clocks around the world, all of which follow Coordinated Universal Time (CUT).

Coordinated Universal Time coincides with winter time in London. On the U.S. East Coast, the extra second occurs just before 7 p.m. on New Year's Eve. Atomic clocks at that moment will read 23:59:60 before rolling over to all zeros.

A leap second is added to keep uniform timekeeping within 0.9 second of the Earth's rotational time, which can speed up or slow down because of many factors, including ocean tides. The first leap second was added on June 30, 1972, according to NIST, an arm of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Since 1999 until recently, the two time standards have been in close enough synch to escape any need to add a leap second, NIST said.

Although it is possible to have a negative leap second -- that is, a second deducted from Coordinated Universal Time -- so far all have been add-ons, reflecting the Earth's general slowing trend due to tidal breaking.

Deciding when to introduce a leap second is the responsibility of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, a standards-setting body. Under an international pact, the preference for leap seconds is December 31 or June 30.

Precise time measurements are needed for high-speed communications systems among other modern technologies.