Friday

Julian Date for January 12, 2024

Friday, January 12, 2024 is day 12 of 366 — the 12th day of 2024. Written as a Julian date it is 2024012.

Julian date (YYYYDDD)

2024012

5-digit (YYDDD)
24012
Day of year
12
Zero-padded (DDD)
012
Julian Day Number
2460322
Julian Date at 00:00 UTC
2460321.5
Modified Julian Date
60321.0

How 2024012 is built

A Julian date in the day-of-year sense is just the year followed by the day number, counted from 1 January. January 12, 2024 is the 12th day of 2024, so the code is 2024 + 012 = 2024012. Many systems drop the century and print 24012 instead.

2024 is a leap year with 366 days, so day numbers run from 001 to 366. After January 12, 2024 there are 354 days left in the year.

Careful: 24012 does not name a century

The 5-digit form 24012 only carries two digits of year, so on its own it is ambiguous. Day 12 of a year ending in 24 could equally be:

  • January 12, 2024 — the usual reading for a recent product code
  • January 12, 1924
  • January 12, 2124

If you are reading a code off packaging, the surrounding context — a shelf life of months rather than decades — almost always settles it.

Day 12 in nearby years

The same day number lands on a different calendar date depending on whether the year is a leap year. This is the single most common mistake when decoding a code whose year you had to guess.

YearJulian dateCalendar date
2021 2021012 January 12, 2021
2022 2022012 January 12, 2022
2023 2023012 January 12, 2023
2024 2024012 January 12, 2024
2025 2025012 January 12, 2025
2026 2026012 January 12, 2026
2027 2027012 January 12, 2027

Astronomical Julian Date for January 12, 2024

In astronomy, "Julian Date" means something different: a continuous count of days since noon on 1 January 4713 BC. The Julian Day Number for January 12, 2024 is 2460322 — that number covers the 24 hours from noon UTC on January 12, 2024 to noon UTC the next day.

  • JD at 00:00 UTC — 2460321.5
  • JD at 12:00 UTC — 2460322.0
  • Modified Julian Date (MJD) at 00:00 UTC — 60321.0

See Julian Day for where the count comes from, or the astronomical converter to include a time of day.

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