ZetaTalk: sci.astro debates: Re: 12th Planet

Re: 12th Planet - any photos ?

Article: <[email protected]>
From: [email protected](Nancy )
Subject: Re: 12th Planet - any photos ?
Date: 27 Feb 1997 02:40:39 GMT

In article <[email protected]> Lamont Granquist writes:
> Any function of time giving r.a., dec. and distance would
> suffice. Even piecewise approximations to the orbit at different
> epochs would be totally acceptable. This is exactly what is
> done with the ephemerides, although, feel free to use functions
> more complicated than an ellipse. All you have to do is
> get it accurate to within a couple of arcminites and also
> have an accurate proper motion for it (so we know how
> fast it should be moving across the field of view) and we
> can work with that...
> [email protected]

How about a flapping, bobbing bird? Remember all that discussion on sci.astro about retrograde orbits? The 12th is coming straight at us BUT, moves first into a regular orbit around the Sun with the other planets, moves up toward the ecliptic plane for the same reasons the other planets are there, and then starts into its retrograde orbit and finally plunges well below the elliptic in the weeks ahead of its roaring through the Solar System. Bottom line, your usual calculations won't predict where it will be - you HAVE no formulas for this guy's path.

(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
ZetaTalk: Retrograde Orbit

As we have mentioned, the 12th Planet's approach at this time, as viewed from Earth, has it essentially standing still. Just as the appearance of the flight of a bird might have it bobbling up or down a bit in flight, as it approaches the observer, if viewed from above the flight the path would appear straight, and if viewed from the side where the rapid forward progress of the bird is more dramatic than any bobble up or down due to its beating wings, the path would likewise appear straight. This false illusion of motion when the observer is not at an angle that presents the true motion of the object being viewed is especially true if the observer is also in motion. If the observer is running toward the bird, rocking to the right and left in his running stride, the bobbling of the bird is compounded by the eyes-view of the human runner so that it appears to be jiggling side to side too.

Astronomers are well aware that the apparent retrograde motion of the outer planets is in fact due to the more rapid orbit of the Earth. Draw a line from the Sun through the Earth and on out to a planet such as Jupiter. Both are revolving around the Sun in a counterclockwise manner as viewed from above the ecliptic, up above the North Pole. Yet due to the faster motion of the Earth, Jupiter would appear to be to the left of the Earth, then to the right, and thus appear to be moving left to right around the Sun, a clockwise motion. Bearing in mind that appearances can be deceiving, and just why that is, the following is what humans can expect to observe as the 12th Planet approaches for its periodic passage.

As we have mentioned, the path the 12th Planet takes between its two foci is like a train track, the path in one direction lined like a straight line next to the path in the other direction. However, this direct path does not hold when the giant nears one of its foci, passes, and turns around on the opposite side for the return trip.

The 12th Planets retrograde orbit around the Sun is due to its reaction to an energy field emitted by the Sun. This energy field radiates out from the Sun intensely at certain points, like a moving arm, following the rotation of the Sun's core where the matter producing this energy field is located. Where the non-traveling planets are in essence swept along before this intense energy field, like dust balls in front of a broom, the 12th Planet is not so trapped.

Approaching from a distance, the 12th Planet reacts to this energy field by trying to evade it, and takes the path of least resistance. Like children skipping rope, if one jumps toward the rope the passage of the rope happens fastest. The sweeping arm of this energy field coming from the Sun passes by quickly out in space where the 12th Planet now rides, but builds in intensity and takes longer to sweep past the closer the 12th Planet comes.

When at a distance, this energy field affects the 12th Planet by slightly, so it reacts as it approaches from its second foci on the near parallel orbit tracks that it travels between its two foci in the same manner the planets close to the Sun do. It sweeps before this energy field as the field passes, moving slightly at these times to the left, in the same counterclockwise manner that the other planets do.

As the 12th Planet approaches, moving steadily closer and picking up speed due to the gravity tug of the Sun, the energy field from the Sun is more intense and takes longer to sweep past. The 12th Planet's reaction to this is still a slight movement sweeping ahead of this energy field, but as the energy field passes is then a stronger jerk backwards, away from the passing arm of the Sun's energy field.

The backward reaction is due to the nature of the sweeping arm, like the cutting edge of a knife most intense at the cutting edge of the arm, but with more bulk of the energy field trailing after the cutting edge. Thus, as the sweeping arm of this energy field passes the 12th Planet, which in no way could stay ahead of this sweeping arm at the distance it is from the Sun, the 12th Planet's reaction to the bulk of the energy field is longer lasting, and begins to produce a retrograde orbit for its approach to the Sun.

Thus, during 1995 through 1998, the 12th Planet will drift left and up toward the elliptic, aligning itself in the same manner as the planets to the Sun's sweeping arm, but due to its mobility out in space, its distance from the Sun, it develops a retrograde orbit and begins to move to the right, in the manner the ancients recorded.