The solar Poynting–Robertson effect on particles orbiting Solar System bodies: Circular orbits

Abstract

The Poynting–Robertson effect from sunlight impinging directly on a particle which orbits a Solar System body (planet, asteroid, comet) is considered from the Sun’s rest frame. There appear to be no significant first-order terms in Vb/c for circular orbits, where Vb is the body’s speed in its orbit about the Sun and c is the speed of light, when the particle’s orbital semimajor axis is much smaller than the body’s orbital semimajor axis about the Sun as is mainly the case in the Solar System.