Timekeeping on Mars - Wikipedia

submited by

Style Pass

2021-05-30 13:00:07

Though no standard exists, numerous calendars and other timekeeping approaches have been proposed for the planet Mars. The most commonly seen in scientific literature denotes the time of year as the number of degrees from the northern vernal equinox, and increasingly there is use of numbering the Martian years beginning at the equinox that occurred April 11, 1955.[1]

Mars has an axial tilt and a rotation period similar to those of Earth. Thus, it experiences seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter much like Earth. A sol, or Martian day, is less than an hour longer than an Earth day. A Mars year is almost twice as long as Earth's, though its orbital eccentricity is considerably larger, which causes those seasons to vary significantly in length.

The average length of a Martian sidereal day is 24 h 37 m 22.663 s (88,642.663 seconds based on SI units), and the length of its solar day is 24 h 39 m 35.244 s (88,775.244 seconds).[2] The corresponding values for Earth are currently 23 h 56 m 4.0916 s and 24 h 00 m 00.002 s , respectively. This yields a conversion factor of 1.027491 251 70 Earth days/sol. Thus Mars's solar day is only about 2.7% longer than Earth's.