🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1h67f4INN9ks@gap.caltech.edu> carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>In article <1992Dec21.195029.5158@linus.mitre.org>, m23364@mwunix (James Meritt) writes:
>
>=>17.  The pressure of light emanating from the sun should slowly change the orbits of the
>=>satellites...but this change fails to materialize; a regulating force seems to overcome
>=>this unequal light pressure on primaries and secondaries.
>=
>=I may be incorrect, but photonic/solar wind pressure seems several orders of magnitude
>=for this to have an observable effect.
>
>Even it that weren't the case, the moron has missed an important point:  Light
>pressure on the Earth in January is equal and opposite to light pressure in
>June.  The net effect of this light pressure is to increase the diameter of the
>Earth's orbit.

One minor quibble, and one that doesn't detract from your point at all, is
that the light pressure (and, for that matter, the solar wind) exerts a
force on the earth that is equal and opposite in June and January, but 
this force is not entirely radial and acts to reduce the angular momentum of
earth slightly throughout its orbit.  Thus, instantaneously, the orbit is 
minutely larger than it would be without the solar radiation, but over 
time it acts to reduce the size of the orbit (also minutely).