Time Zones on Other Planets

Hi Everyone!

In the current explorations of the other worlds (planets, dwarf planets, moons, etc.) of our solar system, have time zones been established on any of these worlds, (as a frame of reference) to aid in their exploration?

If that is the case, are any of these time zones converted to Greenwich Mean Time back on Earth?

I doubt there would be any need for them. Time zones exist on Earth to accomodate our traditional understanding that “4 a.m.” is when it is dark, while “4 p.m.” is during daylight. It would be perfectly possible to abolish time zones and have the whole world run on GMT (or any other standard agreed upon) if it were purely for the reference purposes; but this would mean that the time of the day would be the same for a spot which lies in the middle of the night as it is for another spot which is enjoying a bright afternoon at the same moment. Since none of the other celestial bodies is inhabited, there is no need for time zones; and AFAIK, the only missions where this could have played a role - the manned lunar landings - employed GMT as the standard frame of reference for time.

No, time zones have not been established on other planets. There’s no need for them and won’t be until humans actually live there.

They do have latitude and longitude systems established, at least the ones with solid surfaces do. Most moons rotate synchronously so that they always show the same face to their planet. That makes it easy to set a prime meridian: right through the subplanetary point. Venus and Mars have their prime meridians though some prominent geographical feature. With Mars, it’s through the center of some large caldera (I forget which one) and I’ve forgotten what feature is used on Venus. I’m pretty sure Mercury’s prime meridian is through the subsolar point when it’s at perihelion, which is always the same place.

Oops. My mistake here. Mercury’s subsolar point will not be the same on each orbit, but should rotate through three different points. Anyway, I looked up how the prime meridian was based on Mercury and found that a certain crater named Han Kal is defined to be at meridian 20. Here’s a page with more than you probably want to know about planetary coordinates.

I think the team that runs the Mars Rovers has established timezones of sorts on Mars. See the lower left of their homepage .

Here is the relevant wiki page on Sols.

Two different points, actually, 180 degrees apart. I presume that they actually are at 0 and 180 (or close to it) in the standard scheme, and setting that particular crater at 20 is just a convenient landmark to use which matches up with that (hence why that crater wasn’t made 0).

Well now that they have prime meridians, just remember, if they do establish time zones on other planets and build cities there and build one of the cities on the meridian opposite the prime meridian and don’t adjust the planetary date line to avoid the city but draw it straight through the middle of the city and you go there…

Don’t commit murder there hoping that the police will think you were on the other side of the city on the day the victim was killed.

Because it won’t work.

I saw a PBS special on the Mars Rover ground-control team not long ago. Since the Martian day is 37 minutes longer than the Earth day, team members who wanted to be on duty during the Martian day to get more done would, over time, find their work hours shifting from (Earth) day to night and then back again. Some of the team got pretty tired because their biological clocks were never quite in synch.

This is from a science fiction story, I presume. Which one?

Also, some of them got special handmade Mars-time watches to help stay in sync. :cool: