You are here:

Astrophysics/jupiter's mass

Advertisement

Expert: - 2/7/2008


Question
My question is considering Jupiter size and though it's
distance from the sun it has been shown that it will make the sun wobble by 500000 thousand miles Would it afect sunspot activity?

Answer
Not likely, compared to the massive forces inside the Sun and the effect of its own magnetic fields and gravitation, the force of gravitation from Jupiter is incredibly tiny.  The Sun's own gravitation at its surface is almost exactly a billion times the gravitational acceleration due to Jupiter (from the numbers in my basic physics text).  So the effect of Jupiter is truly weak on the Sun.

Astrophysics

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Steve Nelson

Expertise

Fusion, solar flares, cosmic rays, radiation in space, and stellar physics questions. Generally, nuclear-related astrophysics, but I can usually point you in the right direction if it's not nuclear-related or if it's nuclear but not astrophysics.

Experience

Currently a physics professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Doctoral dissertation was on a reaction in CNO-cycle fusion, worked in gamma-ray astronomy in the space science division of the naval research laboratory in the high-energy space environment branch.

Organizations
Physics professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in physics, research was on nuclear fusion reactions important in stellar fusion.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.