Gabriel - 6:16 am on Mar 22, 2000 (gmt 0)

The question is what happens after the expiration date. If the whois record says that the creation date of the record was 3/21/98, then the registration expires at midnight EST on 3/21/00, right? And then what? The record remains untouchable for a certain grace period? And if it is not renewed by the owner, then what? Does it get erased, making the domain essentially revert to the available pool? Is there a way to know exactly what the grace period is? Also, I noticed the whois database seems to be updated once a day, at about 13:00 EST. In that case, if the record is not updated by the owner, will it become available after that time or at midnight on the expiration of the grace period?

Thanks, Gabriel