2006/06/21 by Lorenzo Iorio · 6 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Planetary Science and Exploration #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/23/17/n01
published as Class.Quant.Grav. 23 (2006) 5451-5454 · Latex, 6 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravity
arxiv created 2006/06/21 · openalex publication_date 2006/08/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
According to general relativity, the gravitomagnetic Lense–Thirring force of Mars would secularly shift the orbital plane of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft by an amount of 1.5 m, on average, in the cross-track direction over 5 years. The determined cross-track post-fit residuals of MGS, built up by neglecting just the gravitomagnetic force in the dynamical force models and without fitting any empirical cross-track acceleration which could remove the relativistic signal, amount to 1.6 m, on average, over a 5 year time interval spanning from 10 February 2000 to 14 January 2005. The discrepancy with the predictions of general relativity is, thus, about 6%.