Saturday, 9 March 2013

orbit - Advancement of perihelion, data

The precession of the perihelion of the planets depends mostly on the effects of the other planets perterbations, but also to a lesser extent on relativistic effects, the aspherical shape of the sun and solar tides. [Wikipedia]



This calculation of the effects of pertubations includes a comparison of the actual and observed rates of precession of perihelion. It gives rates in arcseconds per year:



Mercury 5.75
Venus 2.04
Earth 11.45
Mars 16.28
Jupiter 6.55
Saturn 19.5
Uranus 3.34
Neptune 0.36


For Mercury the observed rate of precession is rather more than would be predicted from perturbations. The reason for this is general relativity, and was one of the first pieces of observational evidence for relativity.

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