… and how could we empirically test this?
Notable commentary:
"… the sun isn't where it was a millisecond ago, and we are revolving around where it was. It's a little like swinging a yoyo on a somewhat elastic string around yourself as you walk around a high school track. The yoyo orbits where you were, but it stays in orbit around you. To the yoyo, you aren't really moving. An observer in the stands would say you are. Someone looking from orbit would say the whole planet on which the track is built is rotating. Etc."
– Jake Watrous
This leads to questions about experimentation:
- Is this realistically testable?
- Have there been any direct physical observations to confirm or refute this?
The description of the yoyo orbit makes perfect sense, so long as the string is taut like a normal yoyo string.
But when you introduce the "somewhat elastic" property of the string, more erratic behavior begins to occur – slingshot effects, etc.
So then the question becomes:
- Why hasn't the Earth been flung out into interstellar space, nor collided with the Sun?
More notable commentary:
A natural model would use the center of mass frame of the solar system. The effect is minuscule: The Sun moves less than 100m in 8 minutes.
– Qmechanic
That makes sense, external frames of reference would not help the situation.
But then, if we acknowledge that this effect exists, but is minuscule, is this effect nonetheless measurable/observable with current technology?
Best Answer
Neither, but closer to its current location, even though gravitational information can't travel faster than the speed of light. See my answer at https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/263244/92058.