Research on the Motion of Mars in the Sovereign Pole System (a.d. 600)

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 432-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan Tang ◽  
Anjing Qu
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
Planetary Theory ◽  
Correct Model ◽  
Synodic Period ◽  
Pole System

The Sovereign Pole System (a.d. 600) is the first Chinese system to take account of the equation of centre for the sun and planets in the planetary theory. In this paper, we mainly discuss the motion of Mars in the Sovereign Pole System. First, we discuss the algorithm for calculating the time of Mars’ first appearance, especially we discuss the influence of the equation of centre for the sun and Mars at the time of Mars’ first appearance. Then, we discuss the segmented motion of Mars in one single synodic period and its accuracy. Finally, we discuss the method for computing the position of Mars at any given time and the error in longitude of Mars. The result shows that the innovations in planetary theory found in the Sovereign Pole System were a fruitful development in ancient Chinese planetary theory and it obviously improved the accuracy of calculation of the position of Mars. However, the planetary theory in the Sovereign Pole System is still relatively rough because it was impossible for Sui astronomers to obtain the correct model of the motion of planet.

scholarly journals New Approach to the Planetary Theory

1979 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 69-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manabu Yuasa ◽  
Gen'ichiro Hori
Keyword(s):  
Perturbation Method ◽  
Canonical Form ◽  
Equations Of Motion ◽  
Disturbing Function ◽  
Averaging Principle ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Planetary Theory ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Canonical Perturbation ◽  
Relative Coordinates

A new approach to the planetary theory is examined under the following procedure: 1) we use a canonical perturbation method based on the averaging principle; 2) we adopt Charlier's canonical relative coordinates fixed to the Sun, and the equations of motion of planets can be written in the canonical form; 3) we adopt some devices concerning the development of the disturbing function. Our development can be applied formally in the case of nearly intersecting orbits as the Neptune-Pluto system. Procedure 1) has been adopted by Message (1976).

The Planets in Aboriginal Australia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane W. Hamacher ◽  
Kirsten Banks
Keyword(s):  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Zodiacal Light ◽  
Retrograde Motion ◽  
Synodic Period ◽  
Relative Brightness ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Evening Star

Studies in Australian Indigenous astronomical knowledge reveal few accounts of the visible planets in the sky. However, what information we do have tells us that Aboriginal people are close observers of planets and their motions and properties. Indigenous Australians discerned between planets and stars by their placement in the sky and their general lack of scintillation. Traditions generally describe the ecliptic and zodiac as a pathway of sky ancestors represented by the sun, moon, and planets. This included observing the occasional backwards motion of sky ancestors as they communicate with each other during their journey across the sky, representing an explanation of retrograde motion. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people note the relative brightness of the planets over time and information about the roles they play in their traditions around Australia. Knowledge systems outline the importance placed on Venus as the morning and evening star, making connections to the object as it transitions form one to the other through observations and calculation of the planet’s synodic period. Traditions note the relative positions of the planets to the moon, sun, and background stars, as well as inter planetary dust through zodiacal light, which is perceived as a celestial rope connecting Venus to the sun. The relative dearth of descriptions of planets in Aboriginal traditions may be due to the gross incompleteness of recorded astronomical traditions and of ethnographic bias and misidentification in the anthropological record. Ethnographic fieldwork with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is revealing new, previously unrecorded knowledge about the planets and their related phenomena.

The Sun, Moon and Venus at Uxmal

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weldon Lamb
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
Synodic Period ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
East West

Counts of mosaic facade elements, doors, steps, and colonnettes of the East, West, and North Buildings of the Nunnery Quadrangle at the Maya site of Uxmal suggest that these features, taken together, preserve knowledge of eight facts about the sun, moon, and Venus: the moon's synodic period is 29.53 + days; the lunar sidereal period lasts nearly 27.33 days; the Venus synodic mean is almost 584 days; the observed Venus synodic can vary between 581 and 587 days; any five consecutive Venus synodics equal or come to within one day of eight vague years of 365 days each; one sun-moon correlation has five short years and three long ones together equal to eight vague years or eight true solar years or 99 lunations; the Venus sidereal period is nearly 224 days long; and, finally, 13 Venus sidereals virtually equal five Venus synodics. Cheek glyphs, flanking birdserpents, and plumed-snake headbands all suggest that most of the masks on the East Building, West Building, and Governor's Palace represent not Chac but Kukulcan-Venus. It is therefore suggested that at least some Pure Florescent facades contain astronomical, calendrical, and ritual information, not just attractively arranged mosaic stones, and that other features, such as doors, steps, and colonnettes, should also be considered as potentially informative.

The Geoheliocentric Mathematical Hypothesis in Sixteenth-Century Planetary Theory

1965 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Schofield
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Planetary Theory ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Tycho Brahe ◽  
New System

It has become generally accepted that the earliest geoheliocentric representation of the planets' motions in which the majority of the planets orbited about the Sun appeared in 1588. For in this year the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe announced his discovery of a new system of the world, in which Sun and Moon moved about the Earth, and the five planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn performed their motions about the Sun. Yet the accompanying figure, which depicts a planetary arrangement in general identical with that of Tycho, occurs in a manuscript prepared at least a year before Tycho's publication of his system. Moreover, the author of the manuscript derived this representation of the planets' motions not from Tycho, but rather from Copernicus. The aim of this paper is to show that as a result of the work of Copernicus, a number of sixteenth-century mathematicians produced treatments of the planetary motions similar to the system proposed by Tycho in 1588.

A Comparison of Chinese and Indian Solar Theories in the Sui and Early Tang Periods (Seventh–Eighth Centuries c.e.)

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 472-495
Author(s):  
Quan Tang ◽  
Anjing Qu
Keyword(s):  
Sixth Century ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Indian Astronomy ◽  
Expansion System ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Pole System ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Early Tang

The Sovereign Pole System ( Huang ji li 皇極曆, a.d. 600) is the first Chinese astronomical system to include a solar equation table for calculating the motion of the Sun. From then on, each Chinese system took the solar equation of centre into consideration. Some scholars have argued that Chinese solar theory in the Sui and Tang dynasties was developed independently by Chinese astronomers. However, other scholars have speculated that this theory was ultimately influenced by Babylonian astronomy, through the medium of Indian astronomy. In this paper, we compare Chinese solar theory in the Sui and early Tang periods with Indian solar theory in the sixth century. First, we discuss the content, meaning, and accuracy of the solar equation tables in the Sovereign Pole System, the Great Patrimony System ( Da ye li 大業曆, a.d. 607), and the Great Expansion System ( Dan yan li 大衍曆, a.d. 727), three representative Chinese systems of the Sui and early Tang periods. Then, we discuss the speed of the Sun, the accuracy of the solar equation of centre, and the difference between the motions of the true Sun and mean Sun in the Vāsiṣṭha Siddhānta, Pauliśa Siddhānta, and Romaka Siddhānta, three Indian astronomical works collected in the Pañcasiddhāntikā in the sixth century. Finally, we discuss the similarities and differences between Indian and Chinese solar theories in the Sui and early Tang periods. The results show that while Chinese solar theory in the Sui and early Tang periods was very similar to Indian solar theory in the sixth century, Indian astronomers had a more sophisticated view of solar theory than their Chinese contemporaries, both in relation to the difference between the mean Sun and true Sun and in the selection of the longitude of perigee of the Sun. At the same time, we must note that the influence of Indian solar theory on Chinese solar theory was very limited, even if Chinese solar theory in the Sui and Tang dynasties was possibly influenced by Indian solar theory.

The Anomalous Sun

Nuncius ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-234
Author(s):  
Samuel Gessner ◽  
Michael Korey ◽  
Karsten Gaulke
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Uniform Motion ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Planetary Theory ◽  
Mean Motion ◽  
True Motion

Abstract Four clockwork-driven planetary automata built to show the true motion of the planets according to Ptolemaic theory, not just their mean motion, survive from the sixteenth century: one each in Paris, Vienna, Kassel, and Dresden. Close, on-site examination of their mechanisms by a team of historians of science and clockmakers has gone beyond existing accounts and revealed that, though they share a common aim, the machines differ fundamentally in their realization of even the “simplest” of the planetary motions, namely that of the Sun. Indeed, three different ways have been detected for producing the solar anomaly, the Sun’s non-uniform motion along the ecliptic in the course of a year. The oldest of the surviving machines (Paris) uses the uniform motion of an eccentric gear, another (Vienna) adapts what would be a geometrically equivalent epicycle, and the two other machines (Kassel and Dresden) make use of a centered gear with non-uniformly spaced teeth. This paper discusses these findings in detail. It argues that such differing approaches not only reflect varying degrees of collaboration among the actors involved in the construction of these four technical masterpieces – princely commissioners, learned astronomers, and artful craftsmen (with these categories sometimes overlapping) – but also that they offer a further, mechanical contribution to the centuries-old reception and refinement of Ptolemaic planetary theory.

On the Interpretation of Weak Sources of Enhanced 80 MHz Emission in the Solar Corona

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (8) ◽  
pp. 375-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Riddle
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Radiation ◽  
Solar Corona ◽  
Electron Density ◽  
Thermal Model ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
Coronal Streamer ◽  
Synodic Period ◽  
Electron Density And Temperature

Recent two-dimensional observations of the quiet sun at 80 MHz by Sheridan showed a persistent low-intensity source (radio enhancement) whose daily motion was consistent with a source at radius 0.95 R® rotating with a synodic period of 27.3 d. In this paper we shall attempt to interpret this result in terms of the effects of refraction and opacity in model coronas. Comprehensive studies of the Sun at 169 MHz show that similar radio enhancements are associated with coronal streamers and that reasonable values for electron density and temperature within the coronal streamer allow the observations to be explained in terms of thermal radiation. Hence we shall consider only coronal models that possess streamer structure. We shall show that temperature enhancements within the streamer (‘thermal model’) do not lead to an apparent radius as small as that observed by Sheridan and that his observation may be better understood in terms of a non-thermal model for radiation from the streamer region.

Chromospheric activity as a function of age in main-sequence stars

1966 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 40-43
Author(s):  
O. C. Wilson ◽  
A. Skumanich
Keyword(s):  
Main Sequence ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Main Sequence Stars ◽  
Tentative Conclusion ◽  
Chromospheric Activity ◽  
General Field ◽  
Large Clusters

Evidence previously presented by one of the authors (1) suggests strongly that chromospheric activity decreases with age in main sequence stars. This tentative conclusion rests principally upon a comparison of the members of large clusters (Hyades, Praesepe, Pleiades) with non-cluster objects in the general field, including the Sun. It is at least conceivable, however, that cluster and non-cluster stars might differ in some fundamental fashion which could influence the degree of chromospheric activity, and that the observed differences in chromospheric activity would then be attributable to the circumstances of stellar origin rather than to age.

Galactic orbits of stars

1966 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
Richard Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Globular Cluster ◽  
Potential Field ◽  
High Velocity ◽  
Velocity Vector ◽  
Variable Stars ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Proper Motions ◽  
Rr Lyrae ◽  
The Galaxy

It is now possible to determine proper motions of high-velocity objects in such a way as to obtain with some accuracy the velocity vector relevant to the Sun. If a potential field of the Galaxy is assumed, one can compute an actual orbit. A determination of the velocity of the globular clusterωCentauri has recently been completed at Greenwich, and it is found that the orbit is strongly retrograde in the Galaxy. Similar calculations may be made, though with less certainty, in the case of RR Lyrae variable stars.

Seti Space Missions

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 761-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Maccone
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
Space Missions ◽  
Gravitational Lens ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Space Antenna ◽  
Focal Distance ◽  
Large Space ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Space Antennas ◽  
New Space

AbstractSETI from space is currently envisaged in three ways: i) by large space antennas orbiting the Earth that could be used for both VLBI and SETI (VSOP and RadioAstron missions), ii) by a radiotelescope inside the Saha far side Moon crater and an Earth-link antenna on the Mare Smythii near side plain. Such SETIMOON mission would require no astronaut work since a Tether, deployed in Moon orbit until the two antennas landed softly, would also be the cable connecting them. Alternatively, a data relay satellite orbiting the Earth-Moon Lagrangian pointL2would avoid the Earthlink antenna, iii) by a large space antenna put at the foci of the Sun gravitational lens: 1) for electromagnetic waves, the minimal focal distance is 550 Astronomical Units (AU) or 14 times beyond Pluto. One could use the huge radio magnifications of sources aligned to the Sun and spacecraft; 2) for gravitational waves and neutrinos, the focus lies between 22.45 and 29.59 AU (Uranus and Neptune orbits), with a flight time of less than 30 years. Two new space missions, of SETI interest if ET’s use neutrinos for communications, are proposed.

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