Chapter 11: Earth’s PVP orbit (Polaris-Vega-Polaris)

We shall now proceed to see how the TYCHOS model accounts for the all-important “Precession of the Equinoxes” - or, as modern astronomers would call it, the "General Precession". Here's how this name change is explained at the Wikipedia entry for "Axial precession":

"With improvements in the ability to calculate the gravitational force between planets during the first half of the nineteenth century, it was recognized that the ecliptic itself moved slightly, which was named planetary precession, as early as 1863, while the dominant component was named lunisolar precession. Their combination was named general precession, instead of precession of the equinoxes."

If, as demonstrated by several modern-day independent studies, Earth does NOT wobble around its polar axis, it follows that we need to explain how and why our Pole stars keep changing over time. We know that the (binary) star system Thuban, for instance, was our “North star” roughly 4200 years ago. In our current epoch, the (binary) triple star system Polaris is our “North star”. In about 11500 years from now - around the year 13500AD - the (binary) star system Vega will become our “North star”. This is generally agreed upon by most of our world's astronomers.

Here is a classic / conventional illustration plotting the circular motion responsible for our “North Stars” to change over time. Please note that, if viewed from an imaginary spaceship hovering above our North Pole, this circular motion proceeds in a clockwise direction:

Above — from Prof. Mahoney’s Astronomy Website - Robert Mahoney (2016) (opens in a new tab)

Now, if Earth doesn’t wobble around its polar axis (as currently believed), could it instead be physically moving clockwise (as seen from our North stars) below the circular path which extends from Polaris to Vega, and back again to Polaris? Surely, this wouldn’t be too much of a fanciful proposition; after all, we now know that every single celestial body in our skies move around 'local' orbits of their own. In any event, to believe that Earth would be the ONE-AND-ONLY orbitless, non-rotating and immobile body in the entire universe is just silly - yet, this is what most 'biblical' geocentrists (and flat earthers) propose...

Let us put this proposition to the test and see if we can find out at what speed the Earth would travel as it completes this 360° journey - around a circle which I have called the PVP orbit (Polaris-Vega-Polaris). To do so, we will first need to estimate its approximate diameter. My next set of graphics should hopefully illustrate in a comprehensible manner the methodology behind my appraisal of the PVP orbit's diameter.

The PVP orbit — Earth’s path below our North Stars

Perusing 'earthbound' digital simulators such as the Neave Planetarium, we can see that the Sun (as it moves around our 360° celestial sphere) covers a distance subtending 2h56min of RA (Right Ascension) in 44 days - or 1056 hours.

In this other conceptual graphic, I show how the Sun would 'visually' employ ca. 44 days to cover the distance between Polaris and Vega (as viewed under an imaginary circumpolar orbit of the Sun). I do realize that my conceptual graphics can be somewhat challenging to envisage - but they are the best I can do to help the reader 'visualize' the train of thoughts that led me to formulate the TYCHOS model's PVP orbit.

We may therefore perform a simple calculation to estimate the diameter of our PVP orbit. Assuming the Sun travels at 107226 km/h, in 1056 hours (i.e. 44 days) the Sun would cover the distance of:

107226 km/h X 1056h = 113 230 656 km (the diameter of our PVP orbit)

Hence, the circumference of Earth’s orbit will be:

113 230 656 km X π = 355 724 597 km (the circumference of our PVP orbit)

In this last diagram, I illustrate in further detail how all of this would be consistent with the geometry implied by the TYCHOS system's proposed PVP orbit - as well as with officially-calculated (heliocentric) predictions:

• Polaris is currently observed to be at 89° of declination (i.e. almost exactly above our North Pole).
• Vega is currently observed to be at 39° of declination (i.e. about 50° 'away' from Polaris).
• In about 11500 years, Vega will become our North star (although only at 86° above our North pole).

In about 11500 years Earth's axis will then be tilted (as officially predicted) by 22.9° - as opposed to the current 23.4° - for a total axial rotation (in relation to our 180° Northern celestial hemisphere) of 46.3°. This 3.7° difference (between 50° and 46.3°) can be accounted for by Earth's 113.2 Mkm displacement along its PVP orbit. This, because in the TYCHOS (as we shall see later on) the Earth-Vega distance is estimated to be ≈37AU. The PVP orbit's diameter of 113.2 Mkm (or 0.757AU) amounts to ca. 2.05% of 37AU - and that aforementioned 3.7° difference amounts to ca. 2.05% of 180°.

ESTIMATING THE ORBITAL SPEED OF EARTH

As will be extensively tested and cross-verified throughout this book, the proposed duration (as of the TYCHOS model) of the so-called "Great Year" is 25344 solar years. This is about 1.68% shorter than the current 'official' estimate of 25771 solar years - for motives that will be clarified in Chapter 12.

There are 8766 hours in 365.25 days. Therefore, 25344 years will add up to:

25344 X 8766 hours = 222 165 504 hours

Now that we know how many hours that Earth will need to cover the distance of 355 724 597 km (the PVP orbit’s circumference), we may compute Earth’s orbital speed:

355 724 597 km / 222 165 504 hours = 1.601169 km/h or approximately 1 mph! (1 mph = 1.609344 km)

That’s right: ≈1.6 km/h - or ≈1mph! This is Earth’s proposed orbital speed in the TYCHOS model.

“By Jove! Could our dear old Mother Earth be tranquilly strolling around at window-shopping pace?”

My very first thoughts - soon after computing Earth’s languid speed around its PVP orbit - was the following: has life on Earth, perhaps, been facilitated by this sluggish, snail-paced motion of our planet? Could this exceptional tranquillity graced to Earth (for being “stuck” at the barycenter of the Sun-Mars binary system) be a key prerequisite for habitability (along with water, photosynthesis, etc) and biological life as we know it to blossom on any given planet? Moreover, isn’t this serene situation enjoyed by our planet rather reminiscent of a ship gently circling around the calm zone in the eye of a tropical cyclone - while the spinning storm rages around it, moving in the opposite direction of the ship?

For now though, I shall leave my poetic & philosophical musings aside and proceed to put this posited orbital speed of Earth to the test - in systematic fashion. As we proceed one step at the time, we shall see that Earth’s 1-mph-motion around its PVP orbit effectively resolves a long series of extant puzzles and enigmas that keep haunting not only our world's astronomers - but our entire scientific community.

We can now work with an empirically testable Sun-Earth velocity ratio. To be sure, that is not the same as stating (as current theory does) that “the Sun hurtles around the galaxy at 800000 km/h along with our system’s planets – while Earth revolves around the Sun at 107226 km/h”, all of this in the absence of any observational or experimental indications in support of such formidable, hypersonic speeds. One may say that these outlandish velocities proposed by Copernican theorists have been an offense to human intelligence all along, since this would mean that our entire Solar System travels across space by more than 7 billion kilometers each year. Yet, our surrounding stars (which would all supposedly revolve in unison around the centre of our galaxy) only exhibit, year after year, infinitesimal 'proper motions' in every imaginable "x-y-z" directions; in fact, the only COMMON MOTION of the stars is that constant, annual ≈50 arc-second eastward drift known as the "General Precession". In the TYCHOS model, of course, this ≈50 arc-second eastward drift of the entire firmament is simply caused by Earth's motion around its PVP orbit.

Those familiar with the infamous Michelson-Morley experiment, billed as "the most failed scientific experiment of all time", may begin to sense that the TYCHOS model might yet vindicate the same; the experiment’s objective was to try and measure Earth’s translational velocity across space (or through the “aether”). Of course, the expected speed of Earth was something in the region of 107000 km/h, yet nothing of the sort was found. Here is what we may read in astronomy literature:

Source: "The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes" (Book 1) - by Imre Lakatos (1980) (opens in a new tab)

As you can see, not only did Michelson conclude that Earth’s speed had to be quite small, but he even “thought of the possibility that the solar system as a whole might have moved in the opposite direction to the Earth”. In hindsight, both of those assertions would seem to be congruent with the TYCHOS model‘s proposed, snail-paced 1-mph motion of Earth, as it revolves in the opposite direction of our Solar System's 'family members'. In any event, the numerous successive interferometer experiments performed by other scientists all failed to detect speeds anywhere near the presumed orbital speed of Earth (107226 km/h - or ≈30 km/sec). The speeds detected were, oddly enough, dismissed as "null" by the scientific community of the time. However, none of the many interferometer experiments yielded "null" results; they generally agreed with each other to some extent and, as we shall see (in Chapter 24), would actually seem to support Earth's snail-paced orbital speed of 1.6km/h.

ESTIMATING THE "ACP" (ANNUAL CONSTANT OF PRECESSION)

If we consider that 25344 years represents a full 360° equinoctial precession, we should now be curious to find out how long it takes for Earth’s equinoctial axis to rotate (in relation to the stars) by just 1°. Let's see how this supposition would pan out as we apply it to the observed synodic periods of Mars, Venus, Mercury and the Moon:

25344 / 360 = 70.4 solar years

We see that 70.4 solar years (or 25713.6 days) equals precisely:

33 synodic periods of Mars (779.2 days X 33 = 25713.6 days)

44 synodic periods of Venus (584.4 days X 44 = 25713.6 days)

220 synodic periods of Mercury (116.88 days X 220 = 25713.6 days)

880 synodic periods of the Moon (29.22 days X 880 = 25713.6 days)

We may now compute Earth’s annual “equinoctial procession rate” as of the TYCHOS system. If Earth’s equinoxes process by 1° every 70.4 years, then every century (100 years) they process by:

100 / 70.4 = 1.42045° - or 5113.63" arcseconds

Hence, our annual “precession rate of Earth’s equinoxes” is:

5113.6363 / 100 = 51.136 arcseconds

I will henceforth refer to this all-important value of 51.136"(periodic) as our ACP (Annual Constant of Precession).

Interestingly, back in the 16th century (when most astronomers estimated the annual precession to be about 50" or less), Longomontanus and Tycho Brahe used a fixed rate of 51 arcsecs/year for their precession calculi:

"Rather than using the Prutenic precession (variable rate) Longomontanus used Tycho’s precession (fixed rate of 51 arcsecs/year)."

"Longomontanus on Mars: The Last Ptolemaic Mathematical Astronomer Creates a Theory" - by Richard Kremer (2015) (opens in a new tab)

In the following chapters, we shall see how this 51.136” value can, in a number of ways, correctly account for the observed motions of our Solar System - as Earth slowly revolves around its 25344-year “PVP” orbit at the tranquil speed of 1.6km/h (or 1mph).

MARS'S CLOSEST PASSAGES TO EARTH - IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PVP ORBIT

As we saw in Chapter 5, Mars can transit as close as 0.373 AU from Earth (as it did in 2003). However, as shown in the below table, the MEAN figure of its closest passages is about 0.379AU.

CLOSEST MARS OPPOSITIONS (1924 – 2050):

TOTAL: 3.41973

AVERAGE: 3.41973 / 9 ≈ 0.379 AU - or almost exactly the PVP orbit’s radius of 0.37845AU (or 56.615328 Mkm)!

I'd like to state for the record that I only realized this astounding fact long after I had estimated the diameter of the PVP orbit of 113.2 Mkm (i.e. 2 X 56.6 Mkm). You may appreciate the importance of this finding, as it would certainly seem to support the proposed size of the PVP orbit's diameter - unless you wish to chalk this up to some random, accidental coincidence.

Let us examine the figures obtained so far to see if we can identify any possible correlations:

We just saw that Mars mean perigee distance is 56.615328 Mkm. Let's now compare this distance with the mean Earth-Sun distance (i.e. 1 AU - or 149.5978707 Mkm):

149.5978707 Mkm / 56.615328 Mkm = 2.6423 (ergo, the mean Earth-Sun distance is 2.6423 X larger than the closest Earth-Mars distance).

My estimation of the PVP orbit's diameter is 113.230656 Mkm. The Sun's orbital diameter is 299.1957414 Mkm.

299.1957414 Mkm / 113.230656 Mkm = 2.6423 (ergo, the Sun's orbital diameter is 2.6423 X larger than Earth's PVP orbit).

So, if Mars regularly transits in the middle of the PVP orbit, what long-term implications would this have under the TYCHOS paradigm? Well, as Patrik Holmqvist and I proceeded to fine-tune the Tychosium simulator, we were obviously curious to see how Mars would ‘behave’ over a full Great Year of 25344 solar years. Amazingly enough (yet, in all geometric logic), it turns out that Mars acts—if you will—like the ‘pivotal body’ of our Solar System: to wit, if we divide 25344 by 4 (6336), the highly eccentric orbit of Mars will always return in the middle of the PVP orbit and thus, at the ‘secular center’ of our entire Solar System. This goes to answer the most frequently asked questions that people have regarding the Earth’s PVP orbit, namely: “what does the Earth revolve around? Does it circle around a random / arbitrary point in space?” The answer to the latter question is: ‘no’.

Note also how even the eccentric and ever-oscillating orbits of Venus and Mercury (i.e. the Sun’s two moons) appear to return, every 6336 years, in similar / equidistant positions with respect to the Sun. It is important to realize that the right-hand diagram of the above graphic was put together by simply superimposing 4 screenshots from the Tychosium simulator, each one of them separated by 6336 years. All in all, the TYCHOS model reveals the breathtaking beauty and geometric harmony of our Solar System—in an even more spectacular manner than Johannes Kepler ever envisioned in his dreamy “Harmonices Mundi” treatise.

THE PVP ORBIT vs THE "PARSEC"

We shall now look at a most remarkable 'relationship' between Earth's PVP orbit and the astronomical unit known as the "parsec".

From the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

"parsec, unit for expressing distances to stars and galaxies, used by professional astronomers. It represents the distance at which the radius of Earth’s orbit subtends an angle of one second of arc. Thus, a star at a distance of one parsec would have a parallax of one second, and the distance of an object in parsecs is the reciprocal of its parallax in seconds of arc." "parsec" - Encyclopaedia Britannica (opens in a new tab)

Another dictionary describes the "parsec" unit (a well-known 'household term' to all astronomers and astrophysicists) as follows:

"A parsec is the distance from the Sun to an astronomical object which has a parallax angle of one arcsecond. (1 pc ≈ 206264.81 AU). A corollary is that 1 parsec is also the distance from which a disc with a diameter of 1 AU must be viewed for it to have an angular diameter of 1 arcsecond " "parsec" - Sensagent dictionary (opens in a new tab)

As we saw above, the radius of Earth's PVP orbit is 56.615328 Mkm. So let's perform the following thought experiment: we shall imagine a scenario in which Earth would travel in a straight line along its radius. In doing so, we shall use Earth's orbital speed, orbital radius and rate of precession - as proposed by the TYCHOS model.

In the TYCHOS:

• Earth, moving at a speed of 1.601669km/h, will cover 14035.85km annually.

• The radius of Earth's PVP orbit is estimated to be 56 615 328km.

• The (true) annual rate of precession is estimated to be 51.136" arcseconds (i.e. our ACP)

Hence, if Earth were to travel in a straight line along the RADIUS of its PVP orbit, it would employ about 4033.6 years to do so:

56 615 328km / 14035.85km = 4033.62304384 years

In such a time period, the stars would appear to ‘precess’ (according to the TYCHOS) by:

4033.62304384y X 51.1_36_(periodic) arcseconds ≈ 206264.81” arcseconds

Wow - where did we just see this exact value? That's right: "1 parsec = 206264.81 AU !"

Let’s now multiply this value by 2Pi: 206264.81” X 2π = 1296000” arcseconds (i.e. a 360° circle: namely, our celestial sphere!)

You may now rightly wonder: "How can a value in units of arcseconds be 'commensurate with' (or even related to) a value in units of AU?" Well, this is when the Wikipedia entry for "Angular Diameter" can help us understand the optical issues involved:

"In astronomy, the sizes of celestial objects are often given in terms of their angular diameter as seen from Earth, rather than their actual sizes. Since these angular diameters are typically small, it is common to present them in arcseconds (″). An arcsecond is 1/3600th of one degree (1°) and a radian is 180/π degrees. So one radian equals 3,600 × 180/π arcseconds, which is about 206265 arcseconds (1 rad ≈ 206264.806247"). These objects have an angular diameter of 1″:

- an object of diameter 725.27 km at a distance of 1 astronomical unit (AU)

- an object of diameter 1 AU (149 597 871 km) at a distance of 1 parsec (pc)"

Source: "Angular Diameter" - Wikipedia (opens in a new tab)

And in fact, if we multiply 725.27km by 1296000"(i.e. 360°), we obtain 939 949 920 km (i.e. the Sun's orbital circumference).

Remarkably enough, we also see that: 206264.81 X 725.27km = 149 597 678.7 km – i.e. near-exactly 1 AU !

As you may agree, the fact that the stars would precess by 206264.81" arcseconds in a hypothetical scenario in which Earth were to travel the length of the radius of its PVP orbit (as determined by the TYCHOS model) would certainly seem to be a significant fact worthy of serious consideration.

This concludes my account of how Earth's PVP orbit was determined - and consequently, how Earth's orbital speed of 1.6km/h was estimated.

Below are some basic Tychos data which you may wish to get familiar with - before continuing what should be a fascinating discovery journey.

Some SUN data (as of the TYCHOS model):

The Sun employs ca. 365.25 days to complete one revolution around its orbit.

As the Sun completes one revolution, Earth has moved by 14036 km (in the opposite direction) along its PVP orbit

The Sun completes 25344 revolutions around Earth in 25344 solar years (i.e. the "Tychos Great Year" - or "TGY")

Circumference of Sun’s orbit: Ø 299 193 439 X π ≈ 939 943 910 km

The Sun's orbital speed: 107226 km/h

Daily distance covered by the Sun: 107226km/h X 24h ≈ 2 573 424 km

Annual distance covered by the Sun: 107226 km/h X 8766 h ≈ 939 943 910 km (i.e. the solar orbit's circumference)

Some EARTH data (as of the TYCHOS model):

Earth employs 25344 years to complete one revolution around its PVP orbit.

Circumference of Earth’s PVP orbit: Ø 113 230 656 X π ≈ 355 724 597 km

Earth's orbital speed: 1.601169 km/h (or 0.9949197 mph – i.e. roughly 1 mph)

Daily distance covered by Earth: 1.601169 km X 24 h ≈ 38.428 km

Annual distance covered by Earth: 1.601169 km/h X 8766 h ≈ 14036 km

In the next chapter, we shall see how the TYCHOS model elegantly (and accurately) accounts for our solar vs sidereal days & years - and why the same cannot be said for the proposed Copernican explanations of these fundamental solar periods.