Does the Sun's Changing Mass Affect Its Gravitational Pull on the Solar System?

[bdkeenan00]

Through nuclear fusion the Sun slowly losses mass as it is converted to energy. The Sun also losses mass through coronal mass ejections. So after a large amount of time would this change in mass of the sun create a measurable change in the gravitational influence the Sun has on bodies in the solar system? Like the Earth?

 

[Ian]

You got it right BD, it will be a large, large, extremely large length of time before a measurable change in the sun's gravitational acceleration would be seen.

 

[bdkeenan00]

You got it right BD, it will be a large, large, extremely large length of time before a measurable change in the sun's gravitational acceleration would be seen.

Thanks for the reply!

I recently found a similar question on the forums and in which it was said that only a very small faction of the Sun's mass will be lost through out it's entire life. Mesurable, but not enough to change any climates enough to be noticeable. Well I'm glad to hear that the Earth isn't going to get any colder anytime soon.

 

[Nereid]

Don't forget that it's not a one-way street ... several comets have been observed http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9806/04/kamikaze.comets/ ; the solar system moves through inter-stellar space, and routinely collectes tonnes and tonnes of ISM dust grains (probably a great deal more when we travel through a giant molecular cloud); ...