Selenoid

The selenoid is the Moon's equivalent of Earth's geoid: an equipotential surface of the Moon's gravity field used as the reference level for lunar clock rates. A clock near the selenoid ticks faster than one near the geoid.

Rate figures quoted on this site are model values, computed from the published definitions. See how we calculate lunar time.

Contrasted with
Geoid

Other terms worth reading next.

All thirty entries are in the glossary of lunar timekeeping.

Where it appears

Primary documents that use the term.

  • NIST's relativistic framework for lunar clocks [1]

Articles on this site that use the term.

Sources

  1. A Relativistic Framework to Estimate Clock Rates on the Moon — Neil Ashby and Bijunath R. Patla, NIST — The Astronomical Journal 168:112, . Peer-reviewed. Verified .
  2. Lunar reference timescale — A Bourgoin, P Defraigne, F Meynadier — Metrologia 63(1) 015003, . Peer-reviewed. Verified .

Last verified