Related papers: The Solar Lense-Thirring effect: perspectives for …
Earth-based radar observations of the rotational dynamics of Mercury (Margot et al. 2012) combined with the determination of its gravity field by MESSENGER (Smith et al. 2012) give clues on the internal structure of Mercury, in particular…
General relativistic deflection of light by mass, dipole, and quadrupole moments of gravitational field of a moving massive planet in the Solar system is derived. All terms of order 1 microarcsecond are taken into account, parametrized, and…
Lunar laser ranging analysis, as regularly performed in the solar system barycentric frame, requires the presence of the gravitomagnetic term in the equation of motion at the strength predicted by general relativity. The same term is…
In this paper we critically analyze the so far performed and proposed tests for measuring the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the Earth with some of the existing accurately tracked artificial…
According to general relativity, the gravitomagnetic Lense-Thirring force of Mars would secularly shift the orbital plane of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft by an amount of 1.5 m, on average, in the cross-track direction over 5…
The possibility to measure the solar diameter using the transits of Mercury has been exploited to investigate the past three centuries of its evolution and to calibrate these measurements made with satellites. This measurement basically…
Let $r(\varphi)$ denote the orbit of Mercury. We compare the formulae obtained via general relativity for $r(\varphi)$ and for the corresponding perihelion precession angle $\Delta \varphi$, with the formulae obtained via the relativistic…
Certain forms of solar wind transients contain significant enhancements of dynamic pressure and may effectively drive magnetosphere dynamics, including substorms and storms. An integral element of such driving is the generation of a wide…
The accuracy of astrometric observations conducted via a space-borne optical interferometer orbiting the Earth is expected to approach a few microarcseconds. Data processing of such extremely high-precision measurements requires access to a…
Thanks to space-borne experiments such as the AMS-02 and PAMELA missions in low-Earth orbit, along with the Voyager spacecrafts in the interstellar space, a large collection of multi-channel and time-resolved Galactic cosmic ray (GCR) data…
We use the corrections to the Newton-Einstein secular precessions of the longitudes of perihelia of some planets (Mercury, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) of the Solar System, phenomenologically estimated as solve-for parameters by the…
In this Chapter we deal with the attempts to measure the general relativistic gravitomagnetic Lense-Thirring effect with the Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) technique applied to the existing LAGEOS and LAGEOS II terrestrial satellites and to…
Observations of accreting black hole (BH) systems, such as microquasars and supermassive black holes, often reveal a precessing jet with changing directions, indicating a misaligned accretion flow relative to the BH spin. The precession is…
Our basic theoretical understanding of the sources of cosmic rays and their propagation through the interstellar medium is hindered by the Sun, that through the solar wind affects the observed cosmic-ray spectra. This effect is known as…
After the recent approval by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) of the LARES mission, which will be launched at the end of 2008 by a VEGA rocket to measure the general relativistic gravitomagnetic Lense-Thirring effect by combining LARES data…
We report on recent refinements and the current status for the rotational state models and the reference frame of the planet Mercury. We summarize the performed measurements of Mercury rotation based on terrestrial radar observations as…
In this paper the possibility of measuring some general relativistic effects in the gravitational field of the Moon via selenodetic missions, with particular emphasis to the future Japanese SELENE mission, is investigated. For a typical…
The planetary ephemerides play a crucial role for spacecraft navigation, mission planning, reduction and analysis of the most precise astronomical observations. The construction of such ephemerides is highly constrained by the tracking…
Historically, the Michelson-Morley experiment has played a crucial role for abandoning the idea of a preferred reference frame, the ether, and for replacing Lorentzian Relativity with Einstein's Special Relativity. However, our re-analysis…
Knowledge of Saturn's axial moment of inertia can provide valuable information on its internal structure. We suggest that Saturn's angular momentum may be determined by the Solstice Mission (Cassini XXM) by measuring Saturn's pole…