02. Would we still use a 24-hour clock, or would days in space be shorter or longer than 24 hours? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

Space travelers would most likely still use a 24-hour clock, so that days would be the same length as on Earth. However, once space travelers landed on another planet, like Mars, the length of the day on the planet is set by the time it takes for the planet to rotate once around on its axis. Now we would have two different lengths of day! The time it takes the new planet to turn once on its axis—from noon one day to noon the next day—might be shorter or longer than 24 hours. That means that 24-hour Earth time might not correspond to the proper time of day or night on the new planet.

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Answer provided by Luke Keller, Ph.D.

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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