COMMENTS ON CRITIQUES OF PLANETARY HYPOTHESES

Abstract

Wolf’s supposition that solar activity has a causal relationship with the orbital motion of the planets, further referred to as the planetary hypothesis, from time to time becomes the subject of critiques. In this note we aim to show that the solar spin momentum changes due to the spin-orbit coupling and the critiques devoted to planetary hypothesis are not strictly substantiated to deny it. We have created the program-package SolAct, which solves a system of equations of the spin-orbit interaction and allows to follow the sun’s angular momentum change over time. Program-package TiTor has also been created to calculate the tidal torque exerted on the Sun taking into account its rotation. Using SolAct and TiTor it is proved that the critiques that claim there are no torques exerted on the Sun to change its spin are incorrect. The calculations show that the theoretical model is capable to simulate the observable variations of the solar rotation, which gives hope that the modeled spin-orbit coupling is plausible. Spin-orbit coupling as a transformer of mechanical chaos to physical, leads to solar activity, which is considered as the response to the chaos of the self-organizing solar system through which it releases itself from the additional energy caused by chaos. If the feedback will cause the solar spin and orbital planes to coincide, the solar activity will be weakened, which can be considered as the physicomechanical evolutionary path of the solar system.