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The International Bureau of Weights and Measures has voted to accelerate the end of leap seconds, shifting the planned retirement from 2035 to May 20, 2027. The move comes amid rising odds—estimated at 30% by 2035—that an unprecedented 'negative leap second' would be required to keep Coordinated Universal Time aligned with Earth's rotation.
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures announced it will stop issuing leap seconds to Coordinated Universal Time starting in May 2027, ending a practice used since 1972 to reconcile atomic clock time with Earth's slowing rotation. Since 1972, 32 leap seconds have been added, with the last one inserted in 2016.
International timekeeping bodies have voted to abolish the leap second, the practice of periodically adjusting Coordinated Universal Time to match Earth's rotation. Instead, UTC will now be allowed to drift up to an hour from Earth's actual spin before any correction, likely via a future 'leap hour,' becomes necessary. Officials say such a correction probably won't be needed for centuries.
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures voted to abolish the leap second, moving up a previously agreed 2035 deadline to May 20, 2026, timed to World Metrology Day. Instead of periodic one-second adjustments, timekeepers will allow atomic and astronomical time to diverge until a full 'leap hour' is needed, a scenario not expected for roughly 3,000 years.
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The General Conference on Weights and Measures voted Thursday to abolish the leap second, the periodic adjustment used to keep Coordinated Universal Time aligned with Earth's rotation. The decision ends a system that has periodically synced atomic clocks with the planet's variable spin since its introduction, following repeated technical disruptions caused by past adjustments in 2012, 2015 and 2016.
Member states of the General Conference on Weights and Measures voted on 15 October to end the practice of adding leap seconds to Universal Coordinated Time, a change originally scheduled for 2035. In its place, timekeepers will allow a full hour of drift to accumulate between atomic time and Earth's rotation-based time before making a single correction, a threshold not expected to be reached for thousands of years.
A photo of juvenile lobsters being reared at the UK National Lobster Hatchery before release into the wild was named a finalist for Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026. The image is part of a broader roundup of standout science photography from the past month, curated by Nature's photo team.