The sidereal day is a unit of time used by astronomers and is derived from the SI unit system. We have used the symbol d-sr.
Sidereal literally means "of the stars". Otherwise known as the "orbital period", it defines the time period taken for two point masses to orbit each other.
On Earth, we used the solar day to regularise time and this represents the period taken to orbit the sun. The sidereal day (or stellar day) is the time taken for the earth to rotate with respect to a distant star and equals 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.0905 seconds (or 86164.1 s, 23.934 h).
The year is a unit of time that is a multiple of an SI unit and uses the symbol a.
The Julian year is made up of exactly 365.25 days – each with 60 x 60 x 24 seconds (86,400 seconds). The .25 days is worked into the system by counting 366 days once every 4 cycles. This is known as a “leap year” and the “leap day” happens at the end of February.
The term year represents the length of time it takes for the earth to complete one full cycle around the sun. Each planet therefore has a different year length.
To track years, humanity has assigned an incremental numbering system. Depending on which culture, religion or part of the world you are from or follow, this number varies. The most common numbering system suggests we are in the 21st century – i.e. in the 2000’s. This system started 0 AD (Anno Domini – which translates from Latin as “In the year of our Lord”). Time before this is referred to as BC (before Christ) and the number increases as you go further into history (like a negative number would).