Scientists have confirmed that time passes faster on the moon than on Earth, which has implications for future space missions.
Because the Moon’s gravity is one-sixth that of Earth’s, this affects the speed at which time moves.
According to researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the celestial body appears to be 57 millionths of a second ahead of its parent planet.
To put it in perspective, since the last time humans were on the Moon in 1972, the Moon has only advanced 1.1 seconds on us.
“An atomic clock on the moon will tick at a different rate than a clock on Soil“, Kevin Coggins explained, NASA-the chief communications and navigation officer.
“It makes sense that when you go to another celestial body, like the Moon or Mars, each one gets its own heartbeat.”
Millionths of a second may seem insignificant, but the difference matters more than ever as NASA prepares to resume manned missions to the Moon.
The agency aims to send astronauts to the satellite by 2026 as part of its Artemis missions, which will explore possible locations for bases on the moon.
NASA plans to use this long-term presence on the moon as a launch pad for expeditions to other destinations in our solar system, including Mars.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration directed NASA and other federal agencies to develop a uniform time reference system for the moon.
However, disagreement has already arisen.
NASA’s figures are just one step ahead of the 56.02 microseconds estimated by researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Neither result has been peer-reviewed, so the agencies still have a long way to go.
A coalition of agencies and international organizations must approve the final decision.
To initiate this process, two key players – the International Bureau of Weights and Measures and the International Astronomical Union – will come together next one month.
This development comes against the backdrop of other discoveries, including growing evidence that days on Earth are getting longer.
Scientists generally agree that this is somewhere between 1.7 and 1.8 milliseconds per century.
This is an increase of one minute every 3.3 million years. That means it takes 200 million years for another hour to be added.
The length of Earth days has varied throughout history. A billion years ago, a day lasted only 19 hours.
The Moon – Our Closest Neighbor Explained
Here’s what you need to know…
- The Moon is a natural satellite – a space-faring body that orbits a planet
- It is Earth’s only natural satellite and the fifth largest in the solar system.
- The Moon is 3,460 kilometers in diameter, about 0.27 times the diameter of Earth.
- Temperatures on the moon vary greatly. NASA explains: “Temperatures near the moon’s equator can reach 250°F (121°C) during the day, dropping to -208°F (-133°C) after sunset. In deep craters near the moon’s poles, permanent shadows keep the surface even colder — NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has measured temperatures as cold as -410°F (-246°C).”
- Experts assumed the Moon was another planet until Nicolaus Copernicus presented his theory of our solar system in 1543
- It was finally assigned a ‘class’ after Galileo discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610
- The Moon is believed to have formed about 4.51 billion years ago
- The strength of the gravitational field is about one-sixth of Earth’s gravity
- The Earth and the Moon have a “synchronous rotation,” meaning we always see the same side of the Moon – hence the phrase “dark side of the Moon”
- The surface of the Moon is actually dark, but appears bright in the sky because of the reflective ground
- During a solar eclipse, the moon almost completely covers the sun. Both objects appear similar in size in the sky, because the sun is both 400 times larger and farther away.
- The first spacecraft to reach the Moon was in 1959, as part of the Soviet Union’s lunar program
- The first manned space mission was NASA’s Apollo 8 in 1968
- And the first manned moon landing was in 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission
A study published last month in Nature found that the planet’s inner core has changed direction and is spinning more slowly.
Researchers believe that since 2010, the moon has been moving slower than the Earth’s mantle and crust, not faster.
While this could affect the length of a day on Earth, it would not be noticeable over a single human lifetime: it amounts to only a thousandth of a second.