Relativistic Perihelion Precession of Orbits of Venus and the Earth

TL;DR

This paper calculates the relativistic perihelion precession of Venus and Earth's orbits using an alternative model to Einstein's relativity, confirming the relativistic nature of the phenomenon with observational agreement.

Contribution

It introduces a modified relativistic gravitational model and applies it to compute perihelion precession for Venus and Earth, extending previous Mercury studies.

Findings

Computed precession values agree with observations within uncertainties.

Results align with predictions of general relativity.

Supports the relativistic explanation of perihelion precession.

Abstract

Among all the theories proposed to explain the 'anomalous' perihelion precession of Mercury's orbit announced in 1859 by Le Verrier, the general theory of relativity proposed by Einstein in November 1915, alone could calculate Mercury's 'anomalous' precession with a precision demanded by observational accuracy. Since Mercury's precession was a directly derived result of the full general theory, it was viewed by Einstein as the most critical test of general relativity, amongst the three tests proposed by him. With the advent of the space age, the observational accuracy level has improved further and it became possible to detect this precession for other planetary orbits of the solar system -- viz., Venus and the Earth. This conclusively proved that the phenomenon of 'anomalous' perihelion precession of planetary orbits is really a relativistic effect. Our previous papers presented the mathematical model and the computed value of the relativistic perihelion precession of Mercury's orbit using an alternate relativistic gravitational model, which is a remodeled form of Einstein's relativity theories, and which retained only experimentally proven principles and has been enriched by the benefits of almost a century-long relativity experimentation including the space age experiments. Using this model, we present in this paper the computed values of the relativistic precession of Venus and the Earth, which compare well with the predictions of general relativity and also are in agreement with the observed values within the range of uncertainty.