The Perihelion Shift of Mercury’s Orbit

Abstract

Influence of planets of the solar system on the precession of the orbit of Mercury is studied in the framework of classical mechanics. It is shown that the average perihelion shift of the orbit of Mercury, calculated in the framework of the planar limited problem, is 556.5 arc seconds per century and coincides with the observed one with a relative accuracy of 2.5%. The incomplete coincidence between the calculated average displacement and the observational data is explained by the presence in the observed displacement of vibrational components with a total amplitude of up to 80 arc seconds and periods from several years to tens of years.