  An unexpected secular increase of the Astronomical Unit, the length scale of
the Solar System, has recently been reported by three different research groups
(Krasinsky and Brumberg, Pitjeva, Standish). The latest JPL measurements amount
to 7+-2 m cy^-1. At present, there are no explanations able to accommodate such
an observed phenomenon, neither in the realm of classical physics nor in the
usual four-dimensional framework of the Einsteinian General Relativity. The
Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati braneworld scenario, which is a multi-dimensional model
of gravity aimed to the explanation of the observed cosmic acceleration without
dark energy, predicts, among other things, a perihelion secular shift, due to
Lue and Starkman, of 5 10^-4 arcsec cy^-1 for all the planets of the Solar
System. It yields a variation of about 6 m cy^-1 for the Earth-Sun distance
which is compatible at 1-sigma level with the observed rate of the Astronomical
Unit. The recently measured corrections to the secular motions of the perihelia
of the inner planets of the Solar System are in agreement, at 1-sigma level,
with the predicted value of the Lue-Starkman effect for Mercury and Mars and at
2-sigma level for the Earth.
