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LEAP SECOND - DECEMBER 31, 2008, 23h 59m 59s UTC

The basis of the official time in the world is UTC, the Universal Time Coordinated; its unit interval is exactly one SI second at sea level.

This time scale is realized from the average of about 300 atomic clocks in the world, to which is added an integer number of seconds in order to have UTC aligned with the Earth rotation. Among the 300 atomic clocks used for the realization of UTC, four of them are located in the Time Laboratory of the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

A new second will be introduced in the UTC time scale on December 31, 2008 at 23h 59m 59s UTC.

This corresponds, in Belgium, to January 1, 2009, at 00h 59m 59s.

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