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Sun Mass Loss, Gravitation, Planetary Orbits
Name: Ankit
Status: student
Grade: 9-12
Country: India
Date: N/A
Question:
As we know that our sun continuously emits radiation, thus I
think from the past billions of years, it must have lost its fraction of
mass according to the energy-mass relationship. Hence, the gravitational
field should be weaker by some fraction. Has the orbital path of Earth or
other planets changed because of this, and if so, what would be
their shape?
Replies:
Yes, you are right, the sun is slowly losing mass, but the amount is
too small to make any difference in our everyday lives. The National
Institute Standards and Testing (NIST) keeps highly accurate track of
time, and only very tiny adjustments to the length of days or years
must be made (and the Sun's changing mass only accounts for part of
that change). The shape of the Earth's orbit is an ellipse - which is
a function of gravitation. Although the distance to the sun might
change with the Sun's mass, the fact that it is elliptical would not.
Hope this helps,
Burr Zimmerman
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Update: June 2012
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