RELATIVISTIC PRECESSION OF THE ORBITAL PERIHELION REVISITED

In this work the problem of the precession of the orbital perihelion predicted by the theory of general relativity is revisited. After finding an exact solution of the relativistic equation of motion of a particle moving under a gravitational force that varies inversely with the square of the distance to a fixed attraction centre of mass M, a new relation for the angular precession is obtained in terms of a Keplerian or Newtonian ellipse parameters: the eccentricity epsilon and the semi-major axis a. Numerical values of the angular precession are given for Mercury and Venus. Finally, comparing these values with those given by the famous Einstein formula, it is concluded that a significant improvement is obtained which could be tested by experiments.