this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (19 children)

Shouldn't the moon have… 24 time zones as well, depending where on the moon you currently are?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (12 children)

No, the moon's rotation isn't on a 24-hour cycle. I'm not an astronomer, but I pretty sure since it's tidally locked to earth and on a 28-day cycle around the earth, a lunar day is actually 28 Earth days, but I'm not actually sure how that would factor into the number of time zones (I'm pretty sure it would be more complicated than just 24 time zones to match 24 time zones on earth, though).

Plus, I think the speed of the moon relative to the sun is different enough from Earth that you need to take relativity into effect, which is the real headache here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

“An atomic clock on the moon will tick at a different rate than a clock on Earth,” said Kevin Coggins, Nasa’s top communications and navigation official. “It makes sense that when you go to another body, like the moon or Mars, that each one gets its own heartbeat.”

article

It's possible that they don't end up putting atomic clocks on the moon, but it's on the table, they haven't worked out the details yet.

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