The Official Astronomy Thread

[Guybrush]

Originally Posted by Mindfulness

Uh, no.

[Mindy]

Originally Posted by Guybrush

Uh, no.

[Guybrush]

Pretty extraordinary how the planets have those perfectly circular orbits.

Oh wait, they don't.

[Guybrush]

Looking at the outermost orbit, it's pretty extraordinary how earth regularly makes sharp turns.

Oh wait

[Guybrush]

I'm sorry for trolling you, Mindfulness. You can indeed create some nice patterns by imagining an elastic string that runs between earth and Venus in a simplified 2D model and that somehow gets solidified at regular intervals.

[Mindy]

Nah its good fam. I dont really feel trolled lol I just having trouble understanding what ya mean

like are you saying them patterns dont happen and the photo is wrong> ?

[rubber soul]

Originally Posted by Mindfulness

Are you playing with the Spirograph again?

[Mindy]

Originally Posted by rubber soul

Are you playing with the Spirograph again?

[Guybrush]

Originally Posted by Mindfulness

Nah its good fam. I dont really feel trolled lol I just having trouble understanding what ya mean

like are you saying them patterns dont happen and the photo is wrong> ?

It just reminds me a bit of sacred geometry and the like. I would say that the only way we know that pattern can happen is if a human makes various arbitrary artistic choices, such as imagining a straight line between the planets that you "capture" at certain intervals.

It also seems arbitrary in that the methodology is so that applying it to any orbit inside an orbit will yield some "fascinating" result.. so I doubt that this venus/earth pattern is special in any truly interesting way.

But I'm also a grump

[Guybrush]

Playing with space gravity simulators is a lot of fun, though I am usually surprised at how difficult it is to make somewhat stable systems in them.

My planets usually get way too close to the sun, then get thrown away into deep space at high speed by the resulting gravity sling