[meteorite-list] INNER SOLAR SYSTEM

From: Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Sep 25 17:27:26 2006
Message-ID: <00c701c6e0e8$dc267460$6402a8c0_at_Dell>

The movie certainly graphically illustrates Mars et.al. cyclical proximity
to Earth.
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete Pete" <rsvp321_at_hotmail.com>
To: <sterling_k_webb_at_sbcglobal.net>; <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 1:24 PM
Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] INNER SOLAR SYSTEM


> Wow!
> Almost chaotic, in this animation!
> But as you say, harmony.
>
> Considering how this solar system is believed to have formed, do you think
> that these dynamics are something that could be expected in other systems,
> too?
> What could have kick-started it? Only the Sun, somehow, right?
>
> Or would you think that some past near-catastrophe could have spun the
> plates? (one of them there new-fangled wandering stars)
> It is just a little difficult for me to imagine these wobbles were borne
> without an outside influence.
>
> Cheers,
> Pete
>
>
>
>
> From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb_at_sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] INNER SOLAR SYSTEM
> Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:56:27 -0500
>
> Hi,
>
> We all know the orbits of the planets vary slightly. The
> obliquity, or tilt of the Earth's axis oscillates from 22.1?
> to 24.5? in a 41,000 year long cycle, as does orbital
> inclination, and the orbit's eccentricity has a small variation
> over a 102,000 year cycle from almost zero to 0.070. The
> equinoxes precess in a 23,000 year cycle. As you can
> tell, these numbers don't change that much, so things
> should appear to be pretty calm.
>
> The other planets in the inner solar system go through
> similar cycles, equally non-dramatic, although I vaguely
> remembered that Mars was a bit more extreme than the
> rest of us. It doesn't seem like it would be very dramatic
> or exciting to watch, if you could watch it change. Then,
> I watched this movie of the inner solar system's orbital
> evolution over the last 3,000,000 years:
> http://muller.lbl.gov/pages/innerplanets.html or directly
> from here: http://muller.lbl.gov/images/inner.mov
>
> The movie that you can view or download from this
> page is about 12 Mbytes long, and in .mov format. I
> used QuickTime Player (.mov is its native format) because
> you can step through it frame by frame (right/left arrows).
> Real Player and Windows Media Player (10) will also play it.
>
> The scale of the animation is not exaggerated or amplified.
> If you could sit in space and watch the inner solar system
> trace each orbit with a visible line, this is what you'd see.
> The units on the edges of the background plane are AU's.
> The site rather modestly says, "Even if you are an expert,
> you may be surprised at what you see!"
>
> "Astounded" is more the word that comes to my mind.
> "Drunk drivers at NASCAR track" would be a good title,
> if you pasted in some little cartoon racers with sponsor
> patches. Is this the renowned "stability" of the solar system
> we hear so much about?
>
> And, of course, it IS stable. Nothing has gone wrong in
> the last three million years nor for a long time before that.
> Still, everything wobbles like crazy...
>
> Currently, Venus can approach as close as 24.7 million
> miles and Mars as close as 34.7 million miles, but it would
> seem that in the past (and future too) their close approaches
> could be as near as roughly half that distance.
>
> I found this movie to be utterly fascinating (could be just
> me). After a few times through it, I would concentrate on
> just watching one planet at a time: Mercury slides back and
> forth like it was shifting the Sun from one elliptical focus
> point to the other; Mars' orbit expands and contracts; Venus
> and the Earth pull up close and flirt with resonance lock; they
> all rock back and forth.
>
> As with any good movie, I was disappointed that it was
> "only" three million years long.
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ----------------------------------------
>
>
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Received on Mon 25 Sep 2006 05:23:34 PM PDT