The first atomic clock was built in 1949 by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to determine the time more accurately. Now researchers from NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder have produced a new atomic clock that is more accurate with an error of 1 second every 30 billion years it operates. This is much higher accuracy than the 1 second error every 300 million years of previous atomic clocks.
To achieve this higher level of precision, the cesium atoms used in previous clocks were replaced with strontium atoms. Cesium vibrates 9,192,631,770 times per second while strontium vibrates 429 trillion times per second. To count these instantaneous vibrations, light waves are shone on strontium atoms in a vacuum chamber.
With this new atomic clock already operational, the world's scientific community is now ready to redefine the basic unit for a second that has been in use since 1967. This will allow experiments on the quantum scale to be performed with higher precision of time estimation. Outside the lab, more accurate GPS systems will be able to be developed. It is also useful for human space travel in the future.