Solar system expansion and strong equivalence principle as seen by the NASA MESSENGER mission

Abstract The NASA MESSENGER mission explored the innermost planet of the solar system and obtained a rich data set of range measurements for the determination of Mercury’s ephemeris. Here we use these precise data collected over 7 years to estimate parameters related to general relativity and the evolution of the Sun. These results confirm the validity of the strong equivalence principle with a significantly refined uncertainty of the Nordtvedt parameter η = (−6. 6 ± 7. 2) × 10 −5. By assuming a metric theory of gravitation, we retrieved the post-Newtonian parameter β = 1 + (−1. 6 ± 1. 8) × 10 −5 and the Sun’s gravitational oblateness, {J}₂ J 2 ⊙ = (2. 246 ± 0. 022) × 10 −7. Finally, we obtain an estimate of the time variation of the Sun gravitational parameter, Ġ {{M}_ } /{G}{M}_ G M ⊙ ° ∕ G M ⊙ = (−6. 13 ± 1. 47) × 10 −14, which is consistent with the expected solar mass loss due to the solar wind and interior processes. This measurement allows us to constrain | { Ġ} |/{G} G ° ∕ G to be <4 × 10 −14 per year.