Looking at this year's calendar, there are 29 days in the month of February. That makes it a "Leap Year", which also means, the 29th day is a "Leap Day". But, what exactly is a Leap Day?

Iowa's News Now spoke with Caroline Roberts, an Astronomy Lab Coordinator and the Observatory Manager at the University of Iowa (UI), to talk about Leap Day.

She says the Earth circles the sun every 365.24 days, but, we count each year as 365 days. In order to make that up, we have to add an extra day to the calendar every four years.

"As the Earth goes around the sun, this takes 365.24 days, or 365 and a quarter days for the Earth in its position to move all the way around the Sun and back to its position," said Roberts.

Roberts says to make up for the 365.24 days, we have an extra day -- Leap Day -- on the calendar every four years. During Leap Years, those days help make up for the short amount of time that is lost. Without them, we would gradually start to see our days -- and eventually years -- fall short.

That would mean things like seeing cold and snowy weather during what is the summer months.

"The seasons progress, whether or not we're counting that two point four our fourth of a day or not," said Roberts.

Julius Caesar began adding that extra day back in 46 B.C. to help fix the problem. That extra day would make up the quarter day that was previously lost. You can read more about that here.

"In fact, the Earth needs to travel for a quarter more of a day, point two five or really point two four, more days before it actually reaches the same place where we started counting our year."

That extra day helps to make sure that the seasons -- and even year -- remain on time.

"It is important to include it, because the position of the Earth matters for the seasons," said Roberts. "So every four years, we need to add a day to make up that extra four quarters that we're missing for the past four years," said Roberts.

You can read more about the Leap Year and some of its history by clicking here.

On Thursday, Roberts said the school will host a Watch Party for the upcoming Partial Solar Eclipse. That event will run from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, April 8th, at the Pentacrest. UI officials will provide eclipse goers with specialized solar glasses and telescopes to safely watch the eclipse.

You can read more about that watch party event and how to safely watch the solar eclipse by clicking here.