Faculae and the Solar Oblateness: A Summary
- Creators
- Chapman, Gary A.
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Ingersoll, Andrew P.
Abstract
As is well known, Dicke and Goldenberg's 1966 solar oblateness observations pose a serious challenge to general relativity. If the optical oblateness Dicke and Goldenberg measured is mirrored in a true gravitational oblateness, then the non-Newtonian part of Mercury's perihelion advance cannot agree with Einstein's prediction based on general relativity. If Einstein's theory fails this experimental test, then the entire theory must be reexamined. In this presentation we wish to make the following point: As a means of measuring true gravitational oblateness, Dicke and Goldenberg's observations may be seriously contaminated by brightness variations on the surface of the sun. The arguments are presented in greater detail in papers by Ingersoll and Spiegel and by Chapman and Ingersoll. Replies to these arguments are contained in recent papers by Dicke.
Additional Information
© 1973 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This research was supported by company funds of The Aerospace Corporation and by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant NGL 05-002-003 awarded to the California Institute of Technology.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 36046
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1973.tb41470.x
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20121219-102922087
- Aerospace Corporation
- NGL-05-002-003
- NASA
- Created
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2012-12-20Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences