The world's official timekeepers voted Thursday to stop adding leap seconds to the world's official time and to use a "leap hour" instead, the Guardian and Scientific American reported. Delegates from 69 countries took part, the Guardian said.

The vote took place at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, France. Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, will become continuous starting May 20, 2027, Scientific American reported. UTC is the time standard used by computers, phones, planes, satellites and GPS.

Since 1972, 27 leap seconds have been added to keep atomic clock time in step with Earth's rotation, which is irregular, the outlets reported. Under the new rule, UTC can drift up to an hour from time based on Earth's spin before a leap hour is needed. Scientists predict that won't happen for more than 1,000 years, Scientific American said. The Guardian said it is unlikely for thousands of years.

"After 30 years of debate, the leap second is making way for the leap hour," Setnam Shemar of Britain's National Physical Laboratory said, the Guardian reported. He said that after a leap second was added in 2012, some computer systems "froze" and went offline.

In the past decade, Earth's spin has sped up, raising the chance of the first-ever "negative" leap second, which would take a second away, the outlets reported. The Guardian said the odds of one in the next decade were about 30%. "Avoiding negative leap seconds is a very big driver," Nick Stamatakos of the U.S. Naval Observatory told Scientific American.

"After 30 years of debates, we are ready," Noël Dimarcq of France's National Center for Scientific Research said before the vote, Scientific American reported. Britain and Russia had raised concerns about ending leap seconds in the past, the Guardian said.

What we know: Leap seconds will end in May 2027, and UTC may drift up to an hour from Earth's rotation.
What we don't: Exactly when, or how, the first leap hour would be added.