E. Bois, and D. Vokrouhlicky, 1995, "RELATIVISTIC SPIN EFFECTS IN THE EARTH-MOON SYSTEM", AA, 300, 559.

ABSTRACT

An accurate theory of the Moon's spin-orbital motion has been constructed by numerical integration. Several phenomena capable of producing effects of at least $10^{-4}$ arc seconds in the lunar physical librations have been included, analysed, and for the most part presented in previous papers. The present work deals with the relativistic spin contributions acting on the Earth-Moon system: (i) de Sitter precession of the Earth reference frame, (ii) quasi-Newtonian torques acting on the lunar physical librations. The latter effect does not seem to have been studied yet. The global behaviour of the resulting librations is presented and described. The resulting magnitude of these librations is of the order of a few $10^{-4}$ arc seconds and may reach one milliarcsecond. Unlike the very faint relativistic contribution to the Earth's rotation, the corresponding relativistic terms in the Moon's rotational motion are not negligible with respect to the present observational accuracy of the lunar laser data. Consequently it would be appropriate to consider them in models adjusted to the observations.


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