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What's the time on Mars?
Many a good astronomy computer program will tell you where the planet Mars is in its orbit around the Sun. The length and phase of the Martian year are available easily. But what about the time of day? If you wanted to know what time it is at Olympus Mons for example, how would you find out, short of going there and setting up a sundial? The length of the Martian day is easy to find out (24 hours 39 minutes and 35.2 seconds), but what is the PHASE? Ie what time is it at a particular geographical (Is that the right word?) location? Also, why is it so difficult to find out when it's scientifically known?
Helpful stuff about Mars time can be seen at:
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Telling Time on Mars (Gone! Was http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/into/allison.02/index.html)
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Time on Mars (Gone! Was http://www.giss.nasa.gov/data/mars/time/index.html)
http://members.home.nl/merelnadine/martian_time.htm
JPS.net Comprehensive treatment of Martian chronology and time-keeping (Gone! Was http://www.jps.net/gangle/mars/calendar.htm)
Oh shucks! No deep linking policy!
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