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Re: Orbital Elements for the 12th Planet


Article: <5dcqd6$5s5@dfw-ixnews4.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: Orbital Elements for the 12th Planet
Date: 6 Feb 1997 14:38:30 GMT

In article <5d8a3a$1va@thrush.sover.net> Gary Wiltshire writes:
>> (Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
>> Unlike planets, which have established their equilibrium
>> after having been trapped into an orbit around a single focus,
>> the 12th Planet acts as a rogue planet, boring straight for
>> the Sun. Where its pace between foci is more sedate, when
>> passing a focus it zooms.
>
> all planetary orbits have TWO of them as those orbits are
> ELLIPSES. Stick two tacks into the cover of one of your
> schlock publications and put a loop of string around them.
> Stretch the loop taut with a pencil and move the pencil around
> the FOCI. Voila! An orbit!
>70523.3077@compuserve.com (Gary A. Wiltshire)

(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
Your analogy falters, Gary. Reading it one starts to imagine the orbit of Mars or the Earth, with a pin stuck out there somewhere to the side of the Sun. Is this truly the case? Perhaps you meant to say that all orbits are elliptical, which has a different meaning. You DRAWING TOOLS may need two foci within the ellipse, but planets do NOT. Their second or third or fourth foci can be outside of the ellipse, and most often are. We will ask our emissary, Nancy, to repost a portion of our prior statement on ellipses.
(End ZetaTalk[TM])

As requested, a paragraph on one of their topics on orbits.

(Begin ZetaTalk[TM] excerpt on Orbits)
Orbiting planets are in motion because they are attracted to more than the Sun's gravitational field, more than the Sun's dark twin which acts as the 12th Planet's second foci, and certainly more than each other, although that is a small factor. Do the stars maintain their distance from each other by accident? For those who doubt that there are gravitational influences outside of the Solar System, pulling on the orbiting planets, we would point to the elliptical path that planets assume. Why an ellipse? If the planets were concerned only with the Sun, or with each other, they would not assume the path they do. Planets assume an elliptical orbit for the same reason that comets leave the Solar System. They are listening to more than one voice. As to why this voice but not another calls to this planet but not another, the answer lies in the force of gravity, which is not at all as simple as humans assume. Gravity has many nuances, depending on composition and distance, and what influences one body toward another may have little effect on other bodies.
(End ZetaTalk[TM] excerpt on Orbits)