Science · 2026-10-15 · Afternoon briefing
Global timekeepers vote to scrap the leap second
An international body of scientists and diplomats has voted to abolish the leap second, the mechanism used to keep global time in sync with the Earth's rotation. At the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, France, delegates agreed to end the long-standing practice of adding an extra second to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to ensure it never drifted more than one second from the planet's own rotational time.
The system will be replaced by a far less frequent correction. A "leap hour" will eventually be added, allowing the atomic-clock-based UTC to diverge from Earth's time by up to an hour, or 3,600 seconds, before being reset. The vote concludes a process that, according to one senior French scientist involved, has been the subject of debate for 30 years.
Summary written by Cup of News with AI from the sources below. Check the originals for the full story.
Read the sources
- Time’s up! Scientists vote to scrap the leap second – but will allow clocks to drift by an HOUR in huge shakeup
- Clock ticking for leap second: Why timekeeping could change forever
- Timekeepers to vote on ending leap seconds next year
- World May Ditch 'Leap Second' in Favor of 'Leap Hour'
- Leap Second
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