Is the Sun Shrinking?
- 4 April 1980
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 208 (4439) , 51-53
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.208.4439.51
Abstract
Observations of 23 transits of Mercury in front of the sun between 1736 and 1973 show no indication of any significant change in the diameter of the sun. Regression analysis yields a decrease of the angular diameter, as viewed from the earth, of under 0.3 arc second per century (> 90 percent confidence limit). This limit is incompatible with the 2 arc seconds per century decrease obtained by Eddy for the equatorial diameter from direct observations made at the Greenwich Observatory and at the U.S. Naval Observatory.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Solar Constant: Constraints on Possible Variations Derived from Solar Diameter MeasurementsScience, 1979
- An Analysis of the Transits of Mercury : 1677-1973Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1975