wrote in message
...
Marshall Dudley wrote:

There are many problems with that hypothesis. First of all there is no
interaction between photons and a magnetic field. Secondly photons
present a pressure, not an attraction.

I have a better idea.

As the planet circles the sun, there is coupling of the iron core to the
sun's magnetic field. (Yes the iron core is not ferromagnetic due to the
heat being over the curie temperature, but there is still coupling due to
it being conductive and the associated electrical eddy currents).

(snip)

Why is there any need for input of energy from an external source to
"keep planets rotating"?

Conservation of angular momentum does the job quite nicely....


Not to mention that Dudley's mechanism would act as a
brake rather than maintaining the rotation. The
planet's rotation would be damped into synchronous
rotation with the Sun, keeping one face towards it
and thus freezing the magnetic lines of force in
place.

Also not to mention that the magnetic fields involved
are pitifully weak and the energies that they can
generate in interacting with the Earth are utterly
negligible when compared with the angular momentum
of the planet's rotation.