The Contribution of the Gravitational Propagation Delay to Orbital and Center of Mass Motions

Abstract

Recent measurements have shown that gravitational waves and thus the gravitational interaction propagate with the speed of light. The propagation delay of the gravitational interaction in orbiting systems couples the orbital and center of mass motions. This causes the orbits to spiral out and the center of mass to accelerate. It is one of a number of small effects modifying the Kepler orbits. The calculations show that the analytical describable expansion of the semimajor axis started at a time that is less than the age of the systems. This could be caused by a collision of a system component in the past. The effect of this propagation delay on the motion of the Earth Moon and the Brown Dwarf 569Bab binary star system is analyzed. These systems were chosen because a considerable amount of measured astronomical data is available. The calculated results are in excellent agreement with the measured data. In galaxies, too, the energy transfer from the orbit of the star cloud to the center of mass motion causes the galaxies to ac-celerate. If galaxies are considered to be molecules of the universe, then the acceleration of the galaxies will cause the molecular gas to heat and expand. Alternatively, the loss in orbital internal energy of the galaxies should be included in the mass and energy in the calculation of the expanding Universe.