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Wobbling Planet

9 January 2021
Physics

At https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2021/01/08/first-detection-of-a-built-in… … seems like Tall Bloke got his story from EOS – see https://eos.org/research-spotlights/first-detection-of-a-built-in-wobble… … the Earth's equivalent, we are told, is the Chandler Wobble, a not exactly well understood phenomenon. According to Wikipedia, the Chandler wobblke should die down within a matter of decades, but continues, there must be an influencer that continually re-excites it. This is thought to involve the slightly oblate shape of our planet. Presumably something similar should apply to Mars – which is not oblate. However, data from spacecraft show Mars oscillates at its point of axis. Only by a very small amount I might add but it produces what is described as a wobble – of a kind. Earth's Chandler Wobble in contrast varies between 3 to 6m at the poles, and repeats itself every 433 days.

Sere for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_wobble#Hypotheses

The question one might ask, assuming the earth's wobble is not insignificant, is this Chandler Wobble capable of causing all those odd references to eclipses which modern computer software has been informing scieintists could not possibly have occurred?

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