Document 
A&A 464, 127-134 (2007)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20066132
Poynting-Robertson effect and perihelion motion
J. Klacka1, M. Kocifaj2, P. Pástor1, and J. Petrzala11 Department of Astronomy, Physics of the Earth, and Meteorology, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina, 842 48 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
e-mail: [klacka;pavol.pastor]@fmph.uniba.sk
2 Astronomical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 04 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
e-mail: astromir@savba.sk
(Received 28 July 2006 / Accepted 17 October 2006)
Abstract
The effect of stellar electromagnetic radiation on the motion of homogeneous spherical
dust particles, the Poynting-Robertson (P-R) effect, is investigated. The effect
already produces a shift of pericenter/perihelion in the accuracy to the first
order in
, where 
is velocity of the particle with respect
to the source of radiation and c is the speed of light. The advancement of
pericenter occurs due to the fact that the P-R effect depends on radiation pressure
efficiency factor
, which is a function of optical properties
of the particle. The particle orbiting a star moves in various distances from the
star and the particle optical properties may vary with the distance, as they
are functions of temperature.
Key words: scattering -- solar system: general -- interplanetary medium
© ESO 2007