Venus Resonance

The Strange Venus Resonance

Most Moons have a 1:1 Synchronous Resonance

Imagine that you are designing a telescope for a lunar station whose only function is to observe the earth. The telescope will be located at the center of the near side of the moon, 0^o Latitude and 0^o Longitude, in the Sinus Medii. The telescope could have limited freedom of movement and a crude balance system because it would always point straight up. The sun would rise and set but the earth would remain overhead day and night. A telescope on earth used to observe the moon, on the other hand, must track the moon as it rapidly moves across the sky.

The moon's orbital rate is synchronized in a 1:1 resonance with its rotational rate. The moon's sidereal month, the orbital time referenced to the stars, is 27 days, 7 hours, 43.2 minutes. This is the same as its rotation period. A satellite is said to have synchronous rotation when it revolves at the same rate as it orbits so the same side always faces the larger body.

Most of the 60 moons in the solar system are rotationally synchronized with their planet. The exceptions are the outer moons of the great gaseous planets. The four Galilean moons of Jupiter always keep their same side toward Jupiter. They also have resonances with each other. Io has a period that is half of Europa's. Io is at perijove when it passes Europa. At that point Europa is at its farthest point from Jupiter (epijove).

Pluto is only twice the radius of Charon. They twirl around like dancers who both face each other. In order to do this one body must rotate clockwise while the other must rotate counter clockwise. Pluto and its moon are like dumbbell weights joined by a bar. If an observer were to land on Pluto, he would either always see Charon, or never see Charon, depending on which side of the planet he landed on. Perhaps because of their similar masses and proximity, both Charon and Pluto are synchronized to each other.

Mercury has a 2/3:1 Synchronism

All the planets except Mercury are too far away to exhibit synchronism with the sun. Radar studies show that Mercury rotates in 58.65 earth days while its orbital period is 87.969 days. Use your calculator to check that 87.969 x 2/3 = 58.646. Mercury is the only solar system body with a 2/3:1 resonance. Mercury rotates three times, relative to the stars, in two orbits. During those same two orbits there was only one sunrise on the surface of Mercury. The number of days is not the same thing as saying the number rotations. The earth has 365.26 solar days per year but it rotates 366.26 times, referenced to the stars. Half a Mercurial day lasts for one Mercurial year - 88 earth days. Mercury also has either the same side or the diametrically opposite side facing the Sun each time it is closest to the Sun (at perihelion).

Click to View a Dynamic Applet of Mercury's Rotation (browser need a Java plug in)

Why doesn't Mercury lock in to the Sun with a 1:1 ratio? One possible answer is Mercury's high eccentricity of .2056. Mercury has the highest eccentricity of any planet except Pluto. An orbit with an eccentricity of zero is circular. The average distance from the sun is 57,800,000 km. The perihelion (the closest approach to the sun) is 57,800,000 x (1 - .2056) = 45,900,000. The aphelion (the farthest point from the sun) is 57,800,000 x (1 + .2056) = 69,700,000. A calculator shows that 45,900,000 / 69,700,00 = about 2/3. At perihelion Mercury is 2/3 of its aphelion distance. The tidal forces, of course, are strongest at perihelion. The planet is also moving the fastest when it is closest to the sun. Is the eccentricity of the orbit the reason the rotational period is synchronized to 2/3 the orbital period?

The Strange Venus Resonance

Venus passes closer to the Earth than any other planet. Venus' sidereal rotation is 243.0187 earth days. The sidereal rotation is the length of time the planet spins as referenced to the distant stars. Venus and Pluto are the only planets that rotate retrogressively. The Venus sidereal year is 224.7 earth days. Notice that the sidereal day is longer than the year. The day night cycle (not the same as the sidereal day) is 116.8 earth days. The sun rises in the West and sets 58.4 days later in the East.

The Earth and Venus have a close approach every 583.9 days. The formula for calculating the approximate interval for closest approach of Venus is:

1 / P_REL = 1 / P_VENUS - 1 / P_EARTH = 1 / 224.7 - 1 / 365.26 = 1 / 583.9

P is the period in earth days of the sidereal orbit. P_REL is the synodic period. The synodic period we are looking for is the time between inferior conjunctions. Every 584 days the earth has traveled one full orbit plus 215 degrees. Meanwhile Venus has completed 2 full circuits plus 215 degrees (2.6 times). During those circuits it has not passed the earth. Venus has also rotated in a retrograde direction 2.4 times or 2 CW rotations plus 145 degrees. Venus has a remarkable alignment. The same side faces us at every inferior conjunction. Every fifth midnight, a point on the surface of Venus, is aligned toward the Earth at inferior conjunction.

Click to View a Java Applet showing the Resonance of Venus (browser needs a Java plug in)

Scientists say the Earth has no way of exerting any significant tidal torque on Venus. At inferior conjunction, the distance between the two planets is .27 AU or 41 million km. This is less than the closest distance that Mercury makes to the Sun. Earth and Venus each have a mass less than 1/300,000 of the sun's mass. We certainly do not experience tides from Venus. In fact most of us are not even aware that Venus is so close because the conjunction happens on the sunny side of the earth. How could this resonance have come into existence? Is this an accidental harmony or does it tell us something about the nature of the solar system? There are several ways to explain this strange synchronism.

1. The retrograde rotation and synchronicity is entirely a coincidence. Because of the elliptical orbits of Earth and Venus, any particular inferior conjunction can occur a few days from the mean. This results in a small discrepancy in the alignment on any particular conjunction. This small variation can be used by those who claim there is no real alignment.

ANSWER: The mean values are quite accurate despite the fact that the earth has an eliptical orbit. For example, on June 8, 2004 at 08:20 UTC, venus will pass across the sun at its maximum ingress. The longitude on Venus that points to the earth will be 334 .7 degrees and the angular size of Venus will be 57.8". Eight years later, Venus will again be in the same siderial location in the sky. Venus will transit the Sun on June 6, 20012 at 06:29 UTC. The longitude on Venus closest to the earth will be 337.8 degrees and the angular size will be the same. That is a three degree difference on the surface of a rotating planet far from us.

2. A collision caused Venus to rotate retrogressively. This would mean the resonance is a random event.

ANSWER: A planet has something called rotary inertia, or rigidity in space. The amount of force even from a large impact would not be enough to overcome the gyro inertia of a planet. Forces that can precess a planet almost 180 degrees must act over a longer period that an impact.

3. In the past Venus and Earth were synchronized by one or more close encounters. In a close encounter gravity could precess a planet. Precession is a torque which acts 90^oin the direction of rotation. That means a torque in the horizontal axis will rotate the planet about the vertical axis. Precessing the spin axis 180 degrees is equivalent to changing the direction of rotation without reducing the rotational momentum of the planet.

ANSWER: Most scientists don't like catastrophic ideas. Yet all ancient astronomers were catastrophists. The earliest writings and drawings of planets describe the planets as though the ancients saw them at close range.

It is interesting that the ancient astronomers of Babylon recorded that Venus had horns like the moon. Many cultures around the world depicted Venus with horns. Was Venus close enough for the ancient astronomers to see the phases of Venus? They also called Venus the gray eyed one. The dark side of Venus is lit up with an ashen light from solar particles like an aurora. They also described Venus as having long hair like a comet. Did Venus once have water which was boiled off into space? The clouds of Venus are acidic indicating there must have been water there at one time. In the Venus tablets of Ammizaduga, when Venus passes the earth at inferior conjunction, it is said that there will be heavy rain.

Why did the ancient myths describe the planets as spheres? How could they call Mars old scar face, the god of war? Could they periodically see the long deep channel scribed into the Martian sphere? How could the ancients know that Saturn had rings? Galileo with his telescope could not even figure out what they were and described them as ears.

Of course any appeal to mythology does not impress scientists. All ideas about the solar system must be tested with the mathematical laws of planetary motion. Everyone knows the ancients had vivid imaginations. Of course no one believes the myths of the gods today. We are still faced with a remarkable coincidence that all over the world ancient people described the planet gods with similar astonishing imagery.

Thinking about assumptions.

Consider for a moment the simple assumption the Greeks invented. An assumption is simply an idea that is rarely tested. A fundamental assumption is an idea upon which the very mathematical laws of planetary motion rest. How can a physical law need an assumption to support it? Science itself rests on an assumption. Modern people almost never think of this assumption. The record of its invention is found in the writings of the early Greek philosophers. It is the assumption that matter does not normally and continually change. What would the universe look like if the assumption were false? Why it would look very much like what the ancients described. It would appear like what we see when we look at the far away things like quasars! I believe that it would look just like our universe.

This little assumption is the basis of Western rationality. Don't scientists examine evidence? Yes, but they interpret all evidence with the same assumption, an assumption they do not examine. They always make the evidence fit the assumption, no matter how difficult or absurd. The scientist's dogma is a very powerful idea indeed. They invent "dark matter" and "cosmic strings" so that they never have to question the fundamental assumption. This is why this page is designed to get YOU to think about assumptions and examine them for yourself.

If the fundamental assumption were false, the synchronicity of Venus could not be explainable through mathematical formulas. It would however be rational. You would give up mathematical models of the universe in order to understand it based on an opposite assumption. I am not talking about mystical ideas. I am talking about an assumption about the nature of simple substance. Scientists of course equate rational with mathematical! Think about it.