On the unmodeled perturbations in the motion of uranus

Abstract

In this paper we apply a numerical method to determine unmodeled perturbations in an attempt to explain the observed discrepancies in the motion of Uranus. We find that the estimated perturbation shows some significant periods that could be attributed to insufficient knowledge of the perturbations from some of the known planets. On the assumption that the gravitational attraction of an unknown planet is the origin of the deviations, the best planar solution of the inverse problem is a planet of 0.6 Earth masses, with true longitude of 133° (1990.5), semi major axis a = 44 AU and eccentricity e = 0.007.