WEB DESK: If you are one of those who are extremely exited for 2017 and counting days to end 2016, you need to know that this year will have an extra second in the last minute.

Why it would be longer? Because the rotation of Earth is not according to the accurate atomic clocks that time keepers usually utilize to tally each second.

Such seconds are called 'leap seconds' which are not a surprising thing. They are given whenever the adjustment is needed but usually at midnight of 30th June or 31st December.

However, back in 2015, the leap second was given in June which is most recent and before that it was provided in 2012, same in June.

Sometimes these additional seconds are wanted regularly like it happened from 1992 to 1995 whereas there was time when these seconds were not needed back in 1999 till the end of 2005.

The question is why do these extra minutes exist? From astronomical point of view, the time measurement has always based on the standard length of the Earth's day and the length is measured by the rotation of Earth which is not absolutely consistent. Also, the Earth is spinning a bit slower with each passing year. But to stay closer with it, an extra second is added to keep everything is balance.

Therefore, in 2016 this extra second is required in the end and instead of normal ticking as 11:59:59 PM to 12:00:00 AM, it would be 11:59:60 this time, in order to keep world's clocks accurate until the next leap second will require once again.

Note: This article was originally publish in bgr.com