Abstract
New estimates of the palaeoradius of the Earth for the past 400 Myr from palaeomagnetic data limit possible expansion to less than 0.8%, sufficient to exclude any current theory of Earth expansion. The lunar surface has remained static for 4,000 Myr with possible expansion limited to 0.06%, the martian surface suggests a small possible expansion of 0.6% while the surface of Mercury supports a small contraction. Observations of Mercury, together with reasonable assumptions about its internal structure, indicate that G decreases at a rate of less than 8×10−12 yr−1, in constant mass cosmologies, and 2.5×10−11 yr−1 in Dirac's multiplicative creation cosmology.
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McElhinny, M., Taylor, S. & Stevenson, D. Limits to the expansion of Earth, Moon, Mars and Mercury and to changes in the gravitational constant. Nature 271, 316–321 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/271316a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/271316a0
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