I recently came across an article in the french Science & vie magazine, where a reader asked if Earth influences the Sun. I found it rather interesting, and while I had my doubts I still wanted to know more about it.

The reader wasn’t the first to wonder if there was any interaction, various models and observations have been put forward since the late 1800s. We often read about two bodies interacting in space. The first exoplanet was discovered due to its gravitational influence on its star causing it to wobble. This type of gravitational influence works when two bodies have a mass within one or two orders of magnitude of each other.  But in the case of our Sun, it is 99.86% of the solar system’s mass, and most of the remaining is taken up by Jupiter and Saturn.  Therefore from a gravitational perspective Earth has no effect on the Sun.

But could the 11 year period in solar activity, characterized by the rise and fall of number of observed sun spots be caused by the planets? The exact source of that periodicity has yet to be clarified.  Well a team of researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) put out a paper in 2016 after demonstrating that every 11.07 years the planets Venus, Earth and Jupiter are aligned.  Coincidence?

They explained that while the effects are rather small, the repeated nudging could be enough to tip the Sun’s magnetic field instabilities one way or the other causing this 11 year solar cycle that we observe, much like an object entering into resonance.  In this case it’s the Sun’s magnetic field acting like a dynamo that would resonate due to the planet’s alignment every 11 years.

However many are skeptical about any real effect pointing that the source of the Sun’s magnetism comes from deep within, while the planet’s effect, if ever, would be limited to the Sun’s surface. But the crushing blow is when you look at fact that the solar cycle varies between 7 and 14 years, the number 11 just happens to be the average over the last 24 observed cycles.  Unfortunately the three planet’s alignment don’t vary by that amount.

In the end, the Sun is still king and does what it wants in this solar system, regardless what the planets say or do.