Related papers: Earth: 15 Million Years Ago
We have developed a model for the Earth rotation that gives a good account (data) of the Earth astronomical parameters. These data can be compared with the ones obtained using space-base telescopes. The expansion of the universe has an…
I model the effect of rapid stellar rotation on a planet's insolation. Fast-rotating stars have induced pole-to-equator temperature gradients (known as gravity-darkening) of up to several thousand Kelvin that affect the star's luminosity…
Recent developments have ushered in a new era in the field of black hole astrophysics, providing our first direct view of the remarkable environment near black hole event horizons. These observations have enabled astronomers to confirm…
The equilibrium rotation of tidally evolved "Earth-like" extra-solar planets is often assumed to be synchronous with their orbital mean motion. The same assumption persisted for Mercury and Venus until radar observations revealed their true…
The Kepler era of exoplanetary discovery has presented the Astronomical community with a cornucopia of planetary systems very different from the one which we inhabit. It has long been known that Jupiter plays a major role in the orbital…
The Sun shrinks during solar maximum and regrows during solar minimum by a few kilometers. Here, we observe, for the first time, that the solar radius variation shows planetary relationship. This suggests that some remote planetary links…
Helioseismology has provided very detailed inferences about rotation of the solar interior. Within the convection zone the rotation rate roughly shares the latitudinal variation seen in the surface differential rotation. The transition to…
I calculate the classical effects induced by an isotropic mass loss of a body on the orbital motion of a test particle around it; the present analysis is also valid for a variation of the Newtonian constant of gravitation. I perturbatively…
Our Universe has multiple examples of unexplained gravitational losses in black holes and neutron stars. As all of the space is squeezed out, nucleons are not easily compressible further. Gravitational loss will allow galactic black holes…
It is widely acknowledged that the Galilean Relativity Principle, according to which the laws of classical systems are the same in all inertial frames in relative motion, has played an important role in the development of modern physics. It…
Observations of the Galactic Center (GC) have accumulated a multitude of "forensic" evidence indicating that several million years ago the center of the Milky Way galaxy was teaming with starforming and accretion-powered activity -- this…
The general circulation of the atmosphere determines the long-term variability of weather processes. This circulation is driven by the temperature differences between the poles and the equator, causing air to move along the Earth's surface.…
In creating his gravitational field equations Einstein unjustifiedly assumed that inertial mass, and its energy equivalent, is a source of gravity. Denying this assumption allows modifying the field equations to a form in which a positive…
The dynamical ellipticity of a planet expresses the departure of its mass distribution from spherical symmetry. It enters as a parameter in the description of a planet's precession and nutation, as well as other rotational normal modes. In…
In the restricted four-body problem consisting of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun as the primaries and a spacecraft as the planetoid, we take into account the solar perturbation in the description of the motion of a spacecraft in the…
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of Einstein's 1915 landmark paper "Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation" in which the field equations of general relativity were correctly formulated for the first time, thus rendering general…
The inertial (due to rotation) and gravitational fields of the Earth affect the motion of an elementary particle and its spin dynamics. This influence is not negligible and should be taken into account in high-energy physics experiments.…
In 2011, we discovered a compact gas cloud ("G2") with roughly three Earth masses that is falling on a near-radial orbit toward the massive black hole in the Galactic Center. The orbit is well constrained and pericenter passage is predicted…
Newton famously showed that a gravitational force inversely proportional to the square of the distance, $F \sim 1/r^2$, formally explains Kepler's three laws of planetary motion. But what happens to the familiar elliptical orbits if the…
We have found an empirical law for the variation of the length of the Earth's day with geologic time employing Wells's data. We attribute the lengthening of the Earth's day to the present cosmic expansion of the Universe. The prediction of…