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Re: Poynting-Robertson effect

At 7:53 PM on 3/11/97, <phys-l@mailer.uwf.edu> wrote:

You should now go to an elementary E&M text and look up Poynting
vector and Poynting flux. Then we'll talk about how sunlight speeds
planets up (the Poynting-Robertson effect).

Leigh

OK, if none of you other fish will bite, I will.

In what sense does sunlight "speed up" a planet? I assume this means it
increases the planet's velocity, and not, say, its rotation rate. If so,
is the planet's orbital angular momentum conserved in the process?

Does the sun do this to all the planets?

I need more hints.

Chip