June 04, 2012

Venus will transit the Sun on June 5, 2012.

Venus and Earth describe a unique orbital configuration with respect to the Sun. The resonance between the two planets is readily apparent when a plot of their movements is made over the course of eight years.

Every couple of centuries, the two planets are in close enough alignment that Venus crosses the face of the Sun twice in eight years. Between that pair of crossings, there is a gap of 121.5 years, then two transits in eight years, then a gap of 105.5 years, then two transits, then a gap of 121.5 years, and so on. Why this odd time interval?

Beginning with a transit alignment, as Venus and Earth orbit the Sun, Venus laps Earth in its orbit after 1.6 Earth years, or 2.6 Venusian years. The fifth time that Venus catches up with Earth, after eight years, they are back at their starting point again. The reason there is no transit every eight years is that the orbit of Venus is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic, taking it slightly above or below a line-of-sight with Earth.

After five Venus-Earth conjunctions, they are also slightly clockwise from their starting positions. It takes 105.5 and 121.5 years for them to regress to their eight year transit pairs and shift from June to December. In 2117, Venus will perform during early December.

Thus, Venus is in near resonance with Earth. In order for an exact orbital resonance to exist, Venus would have to revolve in 243.16 days, but its actual period is 243.01 days. This close alignment suggests that it might be moving out of a resonant pattern that once was more precise.

One factor besides gravity that might contribute to its face-to-face dance with Earth is that Venus has a long ion tail that extends outward for more than 45 million kilometers. During inferior conjunction, that electrically charged structure can interact with our magnetosphere. What if that electrical connection was much stronger in the past?

Venus is evidently a young planet, since it retains a dense, hot atmosphere. It also retains some of the cometary characteristics that were probably visible to ancient civilizations. Electric Universe theorist Wal Thornhill writes:

“Venus, with its cometary tail, is evidently still discharging strongly today after a recent cometary past noted globally by ancient witnesses. Venus was described variously as a ‘hairy star’ or ‘bearded star’ and a stupendous prodigy in the sky. Today, Venus’ comet tail operates in the dark discharge mode and is invisible. It can only be detected by magnetometers and charged particle detectors.”

Venus is supposed to have condensed out of the same primordial cloud as the rest of the planets in the Solar System billions of years ago. Most planetary scientists agree that it has been as it is for at least 300 million years. That means the surface of Venus has been subjected to chemical erosion for hundreds of millions of years.

Why is there no sign of any significant erosion? The Russian Venera landing craft discovered that the surface of Venus is bare rock, with a little debris inside the cracks. This is a significant anomaly for which no one has offered a theory. If its entire surface has been renovated in the last 300 million years, what caused that to happen?

Once, perhaps as little as 5000 years ago, the planets were seen as veritable gods, with tremendous powers and chaotic aspects. Those godlike luminaries cast violent energies upon each other and upon Earth: boiling seas, melting mountain ranges, raising sky high tornadoes of fire, and hurling lightning bolts sufficient to vaporize any human work.

The planet-gods did not revolve in the stately orbits we see today. Instead, they encroached on each other, looming large and then retreating, only to rush together in conflict again. During those encounters, Venus and Earth exchanged gigantic outbursts of electric discharge. In those bolts of interplanetary lightning they formed an electromagnetic bond. It was probably then that the orbital resonance that both planets share came into existence.

As time passes, the intimate relationship once shared by Gaea and Aphrodite is beginning to fade. The long ion tail of Venus that continues to brush Earth with its faint electric tickle indicates that it is still in a state of discharge as it slowly regains equilibrium with the Solar System’s overall balance. The past appearance of Venus as a terrifying comet with fire-like tendrils and monstrous features has been detailed elsewhere in these pages. For now, let it be said that the goddess is sleeping, and in her slumber we are drifting apart.

Stephen Smith

Editor’s note: The link to a plot of the Venus-Earth relationship is from A Little Book of Coincidence by John Martineau