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Sidereal time vs solar time. Above left: a distant star (the small orange star) and the Sun are at culmination, on the local meridian m. Centre: only the distant star is at culmination (a mean sidereal day). Right: a few minutes later the Sun is on the local meridian again. A solar day is complete.
On a prograde planet like the Earth, the sidereal day is shorter than the solar day. At time 1, the Sun and a certain distant star are both overhead. At time 2, the planet has rotated 360° and the distant star is overhead again (1→2 = one sidereal day). But it is not until a little later, at time 3, that the Sun is overhead again (1→3 = one solar day). More simply, 1→2 is a complete ...
The United States Naval Observatory states "the Equation of Time is the difference apparent solar time minus mean solar time", i.e. if the sun is ahead of the clock the sign is positive, and if the clock is ahead of the sun the sign is negative. [6] [7] The equation of time is shown in the upper graph above for a period of slightly more than a ...
Nowadays, UT is the observed orientation of the Earth relative to an inertial reference frame formed by extra-galactic radio sources, modified by an adopted ratio between sidereal time and solar time. Its measurement by several observatories is coordinated by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).
t is the time between these same two events, but as measured in the stationary reference frame; v is the speed of the moving reference frame relative to the stationary one; c is the speed of light. Moving objects therefore are said to show a slower passage of time. This is known as time dilation.
A synodic day (or synodic rotation period or solar day) is the period for a celestial object to rotate once in relation to the star it is orbiting, and is the basis of solar time. The synodic day is distinguished from the sidereal day, which is one complete rotation in relation to distant stars [1] and is the basis of sidereal time.
While originally it was mean solar time at 0° longitude, precise measurements of the Sun are difficult. Therefore, UT1 is computed from a measure of the Earth's angle with respect to the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), called the Earth Rotation Angle (ERA, which serves as the replacement for Greenwich Mean Sidereal Time). UT1 ...
The sidereal year differs from the solar year, "the period of time required for the ecliptic longitude of the Sun to increase 360 degrees", [2] due to the precession of the equinoxes. The sidereal year is 20 min 24.5 s longer than the mean tropical year at J2000.0 (365.242 190 402 ephemeris days) .