Hi. A hypothetical questionThe sun is slowly turning mass into energy. I was just wondering what would happen if the change in mass was greater, what would happen to the orbits of the planets? For example let's say the Sun was decreasing in mass by 1% a year. The gravitational pull of the sun would lessen slowing the orbital speed of the planets. Would this result in the planets orbiting closer to the sun? And conversely if the sun's mass was increasing by 1% a year would this accelerate the planets into higher/greater orbits. Am I right here?

Newton's second law of motion... The Earth and other planets would continue on there course. There centripetal acceleration would decrease because of the weakened gravitational "pull" of the sun due to the decreased mass. I believe the Sun would slowly lose its hold on the Earth and we would gradually move further and further away from the sun, much like the Moon is slowly moving further and further from the Earth (I think its something around an inch or two a year? not sure I would have to look that up).