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R. M. Elowitz (Applied Technology Associates/AFRL)
Contrary to public belief the Moon's motion is very complex. In addition to the three-body problem of the Sun-Earth-Moon, there are additional perturbations on the Moon's motion due to the major planets, with the most significant contribution from Jupiter. Using a General Relativistic, post-Newtonian computer code the motion of the Moon is investigated using Fourier analysis. Newtonian accelerations are included due to figure effects by considering the Moon and Earth as extended bodies. The Earth-Moon distance is computed by solving the Post-Newtonian equations of motion using a seventh order Runge-Kutta-Nystrom method. Performing a power spectrum analysis on the resulting Earth-Moon distance demonstrates the complex nature of the Moon's motion.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: rme@seds.lpl.arizona.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.