International effort launched to create commonly agreed lunar time
Good evening,
What time is it on the Moon? It seems like a simple question, but actually it is full of complexities. With dozens of lunar missions coming up, the European Space Agency has announced plans to standardise "Moon time".
While space leaders agree on the importance of defining a common lunar reference time, who establishes it and how it is calculated is up for debate.
| Hollie Clemence
Executive Editor |
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| SPEED READS | | With dozens of lunar missions due to launch over the next decade, the European Space Agency (ESA) wants to give the Moon its own time zone.
The ESA is collaborating with other space agencies including Nasa in a "joint international effort" to determine what a lunar time zone might look like, said Axios.
The ESA announced the effort to standardise Moon time earlier this week, but space organisations first opened their discussions on the question at the ESA's Netherlands-based Estec technology centre in November last year, according to Sky News.
Until now, each lunar mission has used its own system for time-keeping, the ESA said on Monday. But "as dozens of missions will be operating on and around the Moon and needing to communicate together and fix their positions independently from Earth, this new era will require its own time", the agency said. |
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TODAY'S BIG QUESTION | | Matt Hancock allegedly did not follow advice from chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty to Covid-test all residents going into English care homes during the worst of the pandemic, according to a report based on thousands of leaked WhatsApp messages.
The Telegraph claims that Whitty had told Hancock in April 2020 that there should be testing for "all going into care homes and segregation whilst awaiting result" but the then health secretary instead chose to test only those being admitted to care homes from hospital, saying that testing everyone "muddies the waters".
The revelation comes from a cache of 100,000 WhatsApp messages that were given to the newspaper by the co-author of his diaries, Isabel Oakeshott. |
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People | | Hollywood star enjoying something of a renaissance after her Emmy and Golden Globe wins |
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More from TheWeek.co.uk today | Turnips vs. tomatoes: should shoppers go back to their roots?
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Read more Getting to Grips With... articles | |
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WHAT THE SCIENTISTS ARE SAYING… | | Vitamin D appears to help clear toxic proteins that can cause Alzheimer's disease, according to a new University of Exeter study. Scientists concluded that the vitamin was "a potential agent for dementia prevention" and therefore might be beneficial for people at risk of the condition. Researchers looked at the link in 12,388 adults with an average age of 71 and found "40% fewer dementia diagnoses among the 4,637 participants who took vitamin D supplements, compared to the cohort that did not", explained New Atlas. |
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T H E W E E K M A G A Z I N E |
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| Try The Week magazine today to get straight to the heart of the issues that matter, without angle or agenda. Our easily digestible format gives you the clarity and space to step away from the noise of the news. |
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Poll watch | | Just 3% of Britons are frightened of clowns, while 10% are scared of going to the dentist. Almost a quarter, 23%, are afraid of heights.
YouGov RealTime survey |
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| PICTURE OF THE DAY | | The Prince and Princess of Wales take part in a spin class during a visit to Port Talbot, Wales, ahead of St David's Day.
Jacob King/WPA Pool/Getty Images |
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Good week for... | Stranger Things, after it became the next TV hit to be given its own West End stage spin-off. | |
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Bad week for... | Home-owners, after UK house prices suffered their greatest drop in more than a decade. | |
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Puzzles | | Test your general knowledge with The Week's daily crossword, part of our puzzles section |
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instant opinion | | Your digest of analysis from the British and international press from the past seven days
When it comes to watching television, studies suggest that young people use subtitles far more than their elders – but when it comes to his own children, "our gripes coincide", said Adrian Chiles in The Guardian. Like Chiles, his children "aren't satisfied with merely seeing characters' lips moving as they emit various sounds, some intelligible as words, others lost in the dark recesses of a sound designer's creative fantasies", and are therefore avid users of on-screen subtitles. "Ironically", it is apparently "the march of technical progress in television sound" that "hasn't helped" much. "The audio on the stuff we watch is mixed to surround you in simply fabulous sounds. Spend a fortune on your set-up and you will hear the rocket you can see launching rumbling up through your buttocks via your sofa," writes Chiles. "As for what the highly paid actor playing the astronaut is saying, not so much. For that, we need subtitles." The "only other solution", says Chiles, is to hire an at-home sound engineer. "If I win the lottery, I'll spend a good amount of my stash changing the life of one of the superb engineers I work with on BBC radio," says Chiles. As a "reassuring presence at the best of times" it would be "nice to have one at home, full-time". |
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| IN FOCUS | | World Book Day falls on 2 March – so bookmark a visit to these locations |
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DOWN TO BUSINESS | Wednesday afternoon markets | The pound appeared to lose the momentum it gained yesterday, coming under pressure as official figures found that households were saving far less than during the Covid-19 pandemic and maxing out on credit cards to maintain spending.
FTSE 100: 7,938.81, up 0.79%
Dax: 15,359.85, down 0.03%
Dow: 32,663.59, up 0.02%
Dollar: £1 = $1.2000, down 0.17%
Euro: £1 = €1.1246, down 1.01%
Brent crude: $84.06, up 0.73%
Gold: $1,840.00, up 0.61% | |
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WIT & WISDOM | "Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it, it's only good for wallowing in." | Katherine Mansfield, quoted in Forbes | |
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