Lunar Laser Ranging Science: Gravitational Physics and Lunar Interior and Geodesy

Abstract

Laser pulses fired at retroreflectors on the Moon provide very accurate ranges. Analysis yields information on Earth, Moon, and orbit. The highly accurate retroreflector positions have uncertainties less than a meter. Tides on the Moon show strong dissipation, with Q=33 \pm 4 at a month and a weak dependence on period. Lunar rotation depends on interior properties; a fluid core is indicated with radius ~20% that of the Moon. Tests of relativistic gravity verify the equivalence principle to \pm 1.4 x 10^{-13}, limit deviations from Einstein's general relativity, and show no rate for the gravitational constant $\dot{G}/G$ with uncertainty 9 x 10^{-13} 1/yr.

8 pages, invited talk given at ``35th COSPAR Scientific Assebly,'' July 18-24, 2004, Paris, France

References in corpus (2)

• Progress in Lunar Laser Ranging Tests of Relativistic Gravity
• Violations of the equivalence principle in a dilaton-runaway scenario

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Tidal friction in close-in satellites and exoplanets. The Darwin theory re-visited
• Lunar Laser Ranging Tests of the Equivalence Principle
• Lunar Laser Ranging Tests of the Equivalence Principle with the Earth and Moon
• Composition, Structure and Origin of the Moon
• Impact of non-tidal station loading in LLR
• Laser Ranging to the Moon, Mars and Beyond
• Analysis of the Effect of Tilted Corner Cube Reflector Arrays on Lunar Laser Ranging
• Earth rotation parameter estimation from LLR and impact of non-tidal station loading
• Early Dynamics of the Lunar Core
• Solar System and Atomic Clock Bounds on Locally Coupled Swampland Scalars
• Future Dark Energy Constraints from Atomic Clocks