The Problem of Gravitational Absorption

Abstract

In a recent letter to the Editors, Bocchio (1971) has discussed the problem of detecting the possible absorption of gravitation by using observations of artificial satellites. Using an absorption coefficient, R, quite close to the upper limit found by Tomaschek & Groten (1963) and others he gave orbital perturbation data for satellite orbits having perigee heights of about lo5 m. It is quite clear that perturbations of this order of magnitude will hardly be detected even from a drag-free satellite observed by continuous laser or VLBI (very long base line interferometry) tracking using only one orbital period.