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- Title
Solar system expansion and strong equivalence principle as seen by the NASA MESSENGER mission.
- Authors
Genova, Antonio; Mazarico, Erwan; Goossens, Sander; Lemoine, Frank G.; Neumann, Gregory A.; Smith, David E.; Zuber, Maria T.
- Abstract
The NASA MESSENGER mission explored the innermost planet of the solar system and obtained a rich data set of range measurements for the determination of Mercury’s ephemeris. Here we use these precise data collected over 7 years to estimate parameters related to general relativity and the evolution of the Sun. These results confirm the validity of the strong equivalence principle with a significantly refined uncertainty of the Nordtvedt parameter η = (−6.6 ± 7.2) × 10−5. By assuming a metric theory of gravitation, we retrieved the post-Newtonian parameter β = 1 + (−1.6 ± 1.8) × 10−5 and the Sun’s gravitational oblateness, J2⊙ = (2.246 ± 0.022) × 10−7. Finally, we obtain an estimate of the time variation of the Sun gravitational parameter, G˙M⊙/GM⊙ = (−6.13 ± 1.47) × 10−14, which is consistent with the expected solar mass loss due to the solar wind and interior processes. This measurement allows us to constrain ∣∣G˙∣∣/G to be <4 × 10−14 per year.
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2018, Vol 9, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-017-02558-1