Sun and Earth distance increasing ?

usemyillusion12

ok , so the sun radiates radiation and keeps us warm and toasty.This energy comes from nuclear fission in which a tiny amount of matter is lost in each reaction to sustain this luminosity. However , loads of these reactions occur every second, thus lots of mass is being converted to energy which escapes the sun.

Problem : this mass is essentially being converted and removed from the sun , thus decreasing the mass of the sun. By Newtons law , the gravitational force between two bodies depends on their masses and distance between them. So if the suns mass keeps dropping , it should have a smaller grip on Earth ( and Earth on the sun ) , and we should be moving away.

Did anybody ever hear of this ? and if so , does it not effect our telescopes as we change position in space ? ( even if the change is very very small )

Yes, the distance is increasing, for at least two reasons. The first is the tidal interaction between the Sun and Earth, which accounts for about one millionth of a meter per annum [1]. The second cause is the cause that you've stated. Over the 10 or so billion years of the Sun's life, it'll only lose around 0.1% of its mass, which means that we're moving away from the Sun at a rate that is, roughly, 1.5 cm per annum [1].

url="http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=317"]1[/url: Reference.

usemyillusion12

wow , thats interesting , i thought it was just my imagination working up thanks for the info

dbran

Hi

You learn something new every day:)

I wonder does this take into account the suns loss of mass due to solar wind and coronal mass ejections? Also at this level, the gravitational effect from the other planets in the solar system on the Earth may also be significant?

dbran

usemyillusion12

usemyillusion12 wrote: »

wow , thats interesting , i thought it was just my imagination working up thanks for the info

No problem.:)

dbran wrote: »

Hi

You learn something new every day:)

I wonder does this take into account the suns loss of mass due to solar wind and coronal mass ejections?

It loses most of its mass via solar wind and coronal mass ejections, apparently. From an article I've read [1], it's said to be roughly 20% of it's mass to date. Although, I'd take this figure with a pinch of salt. I also can't find another source to confirm that figure.

URL="http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ast99/ast99441.htm"]1[/URL

Also at this level, the gravitational effect from the other planets in the solar system on the Earth may also be significant?

I'd imagine so, but I'd also guess that it would be next to impossible to calculate their affect, due to the high number of variables.

jumpguy

Is the sun's energy not produced by nuclear fusion?

jumpguy

jumpguy wrote: »

Is the sun's energy not produced by nuclear fusion?

It is, yah. The OP must have mixed the two up.

usemyillusion12

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

It is, yah. The OP must have mixed the two up.

yh , sorry , the oul noggin had other matters in it

another thing , when i was in a lecture , i was told that nobody knows why the planets move in elliptical orbits

however i remember seeing a program explaining it was due to the planets gravitationaly interefering with each other

is this true ? or could you explain it as the sun itself is moving while the planets are orbiting and causes this ellipse ?

Here and here answer that question pretty well.

usemyillusion12

ahh , really makes sense now , thank you