Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why is the Earth moving away from the sun?
New Scientist ^ | Monday, June 1, 2009 | Kelly Beatty, Sky and Telescope

Posted on 06/01/2009 6:59:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Skywatchers have been trying to gauge the sun-Earth distance for thousands of years. In the third century BC, Aristarchus of Samos, notable as the first to argue for a heliocentric solar system, estimated the sun to be 20 times farther away than the moon. It wasn't his best work, as the real factor is more like 400. By the late 20th century, astronomers had a much better grip on this fundamental cosmic metric -- what came to be called the astronomical unit. In fact, thanks to radar beams pinging off various solar-system bodies and to tracking of interplanetary spacecraft, the sun-Earth distance has been pegged with remarkable accuracy. The current value stands at 149,597,870.696 kilometres. Having such a precise yardstick allowed Russian dynamicists Gregoriy A. Krasinsky and Victor A. Brumberg to calculate, in 2004, that the sun and Earth are gradually moving apart. It's not much -- just 15 cm per year -- but since that's 100 times greater than the measurement error, something must really be pushing Earth outward... Takaho Miura of Hirosaki University in Japan and three colleagues... argue that the sun and Earth are literally pushing each other away due to their tidal interaction. It's the same process that's gradually driving the moon's orbit outward: Tides raised by the moon in our oceans are gradually transferring Earth's rotational energy to lunar motion. As a consequence, each year the moon's orbit expands by about 4 cm and Earth's rotation slows by 0.000017 second... the distance between the Earth and sun is growing because the sun is losing its angular momentum.

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; lunarcapture; lunarorigin; moon; science; themoon; xplanets
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last
To: listenhillary

What will the do when the galaxy collapses in on itself and goes supernova?

Die?


21 posted on 06/01/2009 7:26:52 PM PDT by phatus maximus ( John 6:29. Learn it, love it, live it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: mikrofon

Yeah, it could be bad.


22 posted on 06/01/2009 7:27:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

What a relief.


23 posted on 06/01/2009 7:27:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Those are tiny in mass in comparison with the Sun, but velocity also matters, so there’s some kind of movement of the whole works. OTOH, CMEs aren’t confined to one side, so they probably cancel out. And standing on Mercury, one couldn’t even use ‘em to make smores. ;’)


24 posted on 06/01/2009 7:29:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232; muir_redwoods

Loss of mass is very small, even over long periods of time.


25 posted on 06/01/2009 7:30:20 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: phatus maximus

“The *debate* is *over*!” — Al Gore


26 posted on 06/01/2009 7:31:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: TheBattman

:’) Actually, I think the linkage is with Israel’s building “settlements”.


27 posted on 06/01/2009 7:32:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: JoeProBono

Thanks.


28 posted on 06/01/2009 7:32:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

LOLOL!


29 posted on 06/01/2009 7:32:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

What ever, just as long as we don’t shoot out into space on a big ol’ wave of solar energy until my ‘maters are done !


30 posted on 06/01/2009 7:37:46 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

We are all going to die.


31 posted on 06/01/2009 7:39:19 PM PDT by razorback-bert (We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Entropy?


32 posted on 06/01/2009 7:40:31 PM PDT by stayathomemom (Beware of cat attacks while typing!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
CMEs aren’t confined to one side, so they probably cancel out.

I doubt if they would symmetrically cancel out.

BTW: CMEs can be quite large. The white circle below represents the Sun. Some 109 planet Earths could fit side by side across the white ring/Sun's diameter.


Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection
Credit: SOHO Consortium, ESA, NASA

Explanation: Late last month another erupting filament lifted off the active solar surface and blasted this enormous bubble of magnetic plasma into space. Direct light from the sun is blocked in this picture of the event with the sun's relative position and size indicated by a white half circle at bottom center. The field of view extends 2 million kilometers or more from the solar surface. While hints of these explosive events, called coronal mass ejections or CMEs, were discovered by spacecraft in the early 70s this dramatic image is part of a detailed record of this CME's development from the presently operating SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Near the minimum of the solar activity cycle CMEs occur about once a week, but as we approach solar maximum rates of two or more per day are anticipated. Though this CME was clearly not headed for Earth, strong CMEs are seen to profoundly influence space weather, and those directed toward our planet and can have serious effects.

To enlarge image, click here:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000309.html

33 posted on 06/01/2009 7:40:35 PM PDT by ETL (ALL the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

The End is Near! At least getting nearer at 15cm.


34 posted on 06/01/2009 7:40:43 PM PDT by Jabba the Nutt (Are they insane, stupid or just evil?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
The Moon stopped turning on its axis because it has been transferring momentum to the Earth and is a mere 1 per cent of Earth's mass.

The Moon hasn't stopped turning on its axis. The period of rotation exactly matches its orbital period, so it appears to have stopped rotating, to us here on Earth.

35 posted on 06/01/2009 7:43:50 PM PDT by poindexter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

That coronal mass ejection I just posted was in March 2000.


36 posted on 06/01/2009 7:45:07 PM PDT by ETL (ALL the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Solar wind blowing Earth away.... /rimshot


37 posted on 06/01/2009 7:56:22 PM PDT by theymakemesick (You may be a terrorist if you went to church last Sunday or think "shall not be infringed" means it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
SUVs, incandescent lights, and cattle farts.
38 posted on 06/01/2009 8:08:01 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Justice is blind. Sonia Sotomayor is not even qualified to sit on an IMPARTIAL jury.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Yes, but what about the Lense–Thirring effect?


39 posted on 06/01/2009 8:08:57 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( Don't mess with the mockingbird! /\/\ http://tiny.cc/freepthis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
The other theory is that the speed of light is slowing down, (therefore it looks as if the earth is moving away from the sun.)Also h is increasing. It appears that hc is constant not c. It has been known for a while that the relationship between orbital time and atomic time is not constant.
40 posted on 06/01/2009 8:20:27 PM PDT by D Rider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson