White House wants Moon to have its own time zone - BBC News

The US government has asked Nasa to develop a way to keep track of time on the Moon.

3 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsArtemisImage source, Islam Dogru/Anadolu via Getty ImagesBy Esme StallardClimate and science reporter, BBC NewsThe White House wants US space agency Nasa to develop a new time zone for the Moon - Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).

Because of the different gravitational field strength on the Moon, time moves quicker there relative to Earth - 58.7 microseconds every day.

This might not seem like much, but it can have a significant impact when trying to synchronise spacecraft.

The US government hopes the new time will help keep national and private efforts to reach the moon co-ordinated.

Prof Catherine Heymans, Scotland's Astronomer Royal, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This fundamental theory of gravity in our Universe has an important consequence that time runs differently in different places in the Universe.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68722032

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