Related papers: Physics of Leap Second
Total solar eclipses are not only astronomical spectacles but also great astrophysical laboratories. Their historical records are particularly helpful for assessing the past variability of the Earth's rotation speed. Chinese records played…
Motion of a point mass in gravitational fields of the Sun and of the galactic disk is studied. Fundamental features of the motion are found by investigating the time-averaged differential equations for orbital evolution. Several types of…
We propose to use a modest fraction of the re-purposed Kepler mission time and apertures to greatly increase the quantity and quality of our knowledge of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) rotation and shape. NEAs are important for understanding…
We directly determine the sensitivity and time delay of Earth's surface temperature response to annual solar irradiance variations from 60 years of data. A two-layer energy balance model is developed to interpret the results. Explaining…
Solid Earth tide represents the response of solid Earth to the lunar (solar) gravitational force. The yielding solid Earth due to the force has been thought to be a prolate ellipsoid since the time of Lord Kelvin, yet the ellipsoid's…
On incorporating special relativity theory into an extended equivalence principle, post-Newtonian gravitational phenomena beyond that originally predicted by Einstein are predicted (required), such as geodetic and gravitomagnetic…
There are at least four unexplained anomalies connected with astrometric data. Perhaps the most disturbing is the fact that when a spacecraft on a flyby trajectory approaches the Earth within 2000 km or less, it often experiences a change…
Considering radial geodesics in the Robertson-Walker metric leads us to abandon the co-moving coordinates. Instead we work in the cosmic rest frame. Since then the matter is in motion, the solution of Einstein's equations is more…
Of all the solar fundamental parameters (mass, diameter, gravity at the surface,...), the gravitational moments have been quite often ignored in the past, mainly due to the great difficulty to get a reliable estimate. Even though the order…
A very famous ``test'' of the General Theory of Relativity (GTR) is the advance of Mercury's perihelion (and of other planets too). To be more precise, this is not a prediction of General Relativity, since the anomaly was known in the XIXth…
We re-examine past suggestions of a close link between terrestrial climate change and the Sun's transit of spiral arms in its path through the Milky Way galaxy. These links produced concrete fits, deriving the unknown spiral pattern speed…
Mindful of the anomalous perihelion precession of Mercury discovered by U. Le Verrier in the second half of the nineteenth century and its successful explanation by A. Einstein with his General Theory of Relativity in the early years of the…
The empirical formula proposed by J. D. Anderson et al. [1] to reproduce the data on the Earth flyby anomalies is derived from special relativity (SR). The transverse Doppler shift together with the addition of velocities account for the…
We use Doppler imaging techniques to determine the dependence of starspot rotation rates on latitude in an homogeneous sample of young, rapidly-rotating solar analogues. A solar-like differential rotation law is used, where the rotation…
Rotation is a key parameter in the evolution of stars. From 1 Myr (the age of the ONC) to 4.5 Gyr (the age of the Sun), solar-like stars lose about 1-2 orders of specific angular momentum. The main agents for this rotational braking are…
Assuming a model of aether non-entrained by the motion of celestial bodies, one can provide a rational explanation of the experimental processes affecting the measurement of time when clocks are in motion. Contrary to special relativity,…
The rotation axis of the Sun is misaligned from the mean angular momentum plane of the Solar system by about 6 degrees. This obliquity significantly exceeds the ~1-2 degree distribution of inclinations among the planetary orbits and…
The early gas-dust solar nebula is considered: the gasdynamic theory is used to study the gravitational Jeans-type instability in its protoplanetary disk. The implications for the origin of the solar system are discussed. It is shown that a…
An acoustic method is presented for analyzing the time of falling motion. A ball is dropped from a measured height. The dropping device makes a distinct sound a well-determined time (roughly 14 milliseconds) after release. The ball…
The method of constructing of rotation curve for our galactic disc is discussed. Simple physical model shows that the velocity of the Sun around the center of the Galaxy must be less than currently accepted IAU value 220 km/s. Independently…