Estimations of the change of the Sun’s mass
and the gravitation constant based
on high-accuracy observations of planets and spacecraft
More than 635 000 positional observations of planets and spacecraft
of different types have been used for estimating possible changes
of the gravitation constant, the solar mass, and semi-major axes
of planets. The analysis of the observations has been performed
on the basis of the EPM2010 ephemerides of IAA RAS in post-newtonian
approximation. The estimation of the change of the geliocentric
gravitation constant GM
Sun has been obtained
MSun /GM
Sun= (-5.0 ±4.1) ·10
-14
in year (3σ). The positive annual changes of semi-major axes
i/a
i have
been determined simultaneously for the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn provided with high-accuracy sets of the observations, as expected
if the geliocentric gravitation constant is decreasing in century wise.
Taking into account the maximal limits of the possible MSun change it was
found from the GM
Sun change obtained that the gravitation constant
/G
falls within the interval -4.2·10
-14 <
/G < +7.5·10
-14
per year with 95 % probability.