Can Mercury's orbit be explained without relativity?

The orbit of mercury is different than rest of the planets. The reason for this seemed unaccounted for in Newtonian physics, and was later explained by Einstein's theory of relativity.

Here is a quick video that explains this easily.

For a while astronomers looked for a different planet/asteroid field structure to compensate for this, and therefore make it fit into the Newtonian physics prediction. My question is: what if they should have been looking inside the sun for this change in gravity?

If the sun had a center of density that wobbled in a certain way, could this result in the observable Mercury orbit?

I am not that interested in what ramifications are caused by challenging relativity, if I want to be called a heretic I will post this on the physics page. :)

Simply put, could the discrepancy between Newton's prediction and real world measurements of Mercury's orbit be a result of variations in the center of density of the Sun?

posted about 6 years ago

user46322‭

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