Scientists have discovered a rare six-planet system where all planets orbit their star in perfect mathematical harmony.
  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    7 months ago

    The development of astronomy in that system would get stuck after Kepler—Newton’s laws would be dismissed since they couldn’t explain the orbital resonances.

  • DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world
    11·
    7 months ago

    This is a Bobiverse thing, no? Heavens gate maybe? I remember one of the systems found with like perfectly spaced planets moving harmoniously. Neat, great share, thanks!

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
    6·
    7 months ago

    aliens did it because alien programmers said it would make coming up with a universal time coordination easier. spoiler: they were wrong

  • EarMaster@lemmy.world
    6·
    7 months ago

    These planets all have incredibly short “years”. The outermost only takes 55 earth days to complete one orbit. I suspect that this means they are also all very close to their star. That would explain why there is such harmony as the star is easily the only and/or largest gravitational influence on them.

  • maniii@lemmy.world
    52·
    7 months ago

    Hol’ up.

    Mathematics tries to describe our world. So … Essentially EVERYTHING is mathematically described to the extent of our knowledge…

    What is not mathematical? Human thought? Human behaviour? Even those are described but not perfectly.

    So even if we say something is “perfect” it is only to the maximum observable human extent and limits.

    Either everything is perfect or nothing is perfect or it is somewhere inbetween.

    Am I in lemmy shitpost or something?

    • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      7 months ago

      Mathematically clean and tidy would be a better description. This system is particularly close to the natural harmonics that either occur when planets form, or that planetary systems tend towards.

      It’s akin to watching a group of metronomes move into sync. Mathematically, it’s not that special. To us monkeys, that particular pattern feels a lot better and cleaner.

      Scientifically, it’s quite useful. By judging the age of the system, we can tell a lot about early formation and planetary movements. As the article mentions, it’s likely that planets form in such a resonance, then get knocked into chaotic orbits. However that’s not been tested. This system would let us test some of our models against reality.