New clock just dropped, but itll only drop a second every 30 billion years while in operation.
Thats right: Its the most precise, accurate clock yet built.
The clock is described in a not-yet-peer-reviewedpaper currently hostedon the preprint server arXiv.
The atomic clock is an optical lattice that controls strontium atoms.Photo:K. Palubicki/NIST
Asreported by ScienceAlert, the new clock is twice as accurate as the previous timekeeping record holder.
Its pushing the boundaries of whats possible with timekeeping.
As described in Einsteins theory of general relativity, time itself is affected by gravity.
Were exploring the frontiers of measurement science, Ye said.
It ticks trillions of times per second, and is accurate to within 1/15,000,000,000 of a second per year.
Staggering stuff, and perhaps as good a reminder as any that time is of the essence.
Why are you still reading?
Its 58.7 microseconds, and not nearly an entire second.
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