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7 - Relativity and Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2018

Dennis D. McCarthy
Affiliation:
United States Naval Observatory
P. Kenneth Seidelmann
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
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Summary

Although Albert Einstein had proposed the theory of special relativity in 1905, Newtonian reference systems continued to be adequate for most practical purposes into the 1960s. Space exploration, artificial Earth satellites, and more accurate timescales, however created the requirement to distinguish between proper and coordinate time, and to include relativistic effects, such as time dilation. A relativistic framework was necessary for time transfer and time transformations between coordinate times in the solar system. General relativity metrics and the equivalence principle were considered in the definitions of Barycentric and Geocentric Celestial Reference Systems, introduced by the IAU in 2000.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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References

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