Calculation of the Precession of the Perihelion of Mercury’s Orbit Within the Framework of a Generalized Law of Universal Gravitation with Refined Data

Abstract

The precession of the perihelion of Mercury’s orbit for 100 years in the gravitational field of the Sun and the planets has been numerically modeled within the framework of a generalized law of universal gravitation with refined data on the parameters of the orbits of the planets (including the asteroid belt and Pluto), and also the gravitational constant and with a smaller iteration step (0.0002 s). The calculations were performed with enhanced computational accuracy. It has been shown that the average precession of Mercury’s orbit in 100 years within the framework of the generalized law of universal gravitation comprises ~565.3''. This is less than the observed shift of the perihelion by about 8.8''. The observed shift of the perihelion, as is well known, comprises ~574.1''. It is not ruled out that inside Mercury’s orbit some unknown undetected object (or several such objects) of small size remains to be found.