![]() This is the amount of time it takes for a planet to spin on its axis so that the Sun appears in the same position in the daytime sky (typically when the Sun is on the local meridian). Although astronomers sometimes use the sidereal day as a passage of time, in our everyday lives we’re more familiar with the idea of a solar day. On the Earth that is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds. ![]() The time it takes for a planet to spin once so that the stars appear in the same position again in the night sky is known as a sidereal day. However the length of a day can be defined in two ways – a sidereal day and a solar day. We’re very accustomed to the daily cycle on our planet – the Earth spins anticlockwise on its axis, beginning the day with the Sun rising in the east and eventually setting in the west. That takes us into night and finally to a new day with the Sun rising once again. Its 'sidereal' day is 24 hours, 37 minutes and 22 seconds, and its solar day 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds.Ī Martian day (referred to as “sol”) is therefore approximately 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth. Mars is a planet with a very similar daily cycle to the Earth.
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