There are some clocks, mostly in or around international airports, which have multiple faces to show the time at various cities around the world. Taking more a forward-looking approach is [Chronova Engineering], who built a clock to display the time on four different planets: Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

The clock doesn’t have any hands, but it uses rotating dials to represent a top-down view of each planet from it’s north pole. The dials have degree markings to represent rotation relative to each planet’s prime meridian; for the gas giants, rotation is measured by the rotation of the planet’s core. Each dial’s center is made out of a circular stone tile with patterns similar to those seen on the planet; Earth, for example, is represented with sodalite. Three pointers mounted around the dial indicate the longitudes which are currently experiencing sunrise, noon, and sunset. The mechanism can be turned with a handle or a knob, and a mechanical counter keeps track of the number of Earth days that have passed.

Continue reading “Interplanetary Clock Keeps Time Across The Solar System” →