Trilogy, an Interplanetary Constellation to Measure the Rate of Mass Loss by the Sun
Abstract
As the Sun slowly converts hydrogen into helium it steadily loses mass because the mass of a fused helium atom is less than that of the four original hydrogen atoms. This mass difference is released as energy in the form of electromagnetic and particle radiation. It will also affect the orbits of the planets and other bodies because the Sun's gravity is the central force that determines the sizes of their orbits. This loss of mass, believed to be of order 10-13 solar mass/ year, increases the semi-major axis of Earth's orbit by about 1.5 cm/year, with increasing magnitude with distance, e.g., over 7 cm/year at Jupiter near 5 AU. For the inner planets, where planetary orbital velocities are greatest, the largest effect is in the decrease in angular velocity as a result of the conservation of angular momentum. We will present a mission concept called Trilogy, which would establish geodetic/geophysical spacecraft around several key planetary bodies (i.e., Venus, Mars and Earth's Moon) and measure the ranges between these spacecraft down to centimeter level regularly over a period of years. The required technologies have been demonstrated on missions to the Moon and can now be applied between planets. The observations would enable the accurate determination and monitoring of the trajectories of these masses, from which the rate of decrease in solar mass could be estimated with great precision. Such a dataset would also enable the recovery of parameters key to many scientific fields, from planetary science to heliophysics to astrophysics and relativity.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFM.P11F..08Z
- Keywords:
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- 1221 Lunar and planetary geodesy and gravity;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITY;
- 1294 Instruments and techniques;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITY;
- 6024 Interiors;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: COMETS AND SMALL BODIES;
- 5430 Interiors;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS