Cosmic dance - Venus and Earth over 8.5 years

[packman]

v

Orbital resonance

In celestial mechanics, an orbital resonance occurs when orbiting bodies exert a regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually because their orbital periods are related by a ratio of small integers. Most commonly this relationship is found for a pair of objects. The physics principle behind orbital resonance is similar in concept to pushing a child on a swing, where the orbit and the swing both have a natural frequency, and the other body doing the "pushing" will act in periodic repetition to have a cumulative effect on the motion. Orbital resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of the bodies

[CrispyQ]

1. A spriograph mandala!

Cool!

[backtoblue]

2. Super cool nt

[Phoenix61]

3. That is incredibly cool! nt

[Canoe52]

4. KnR for wowness! nt

[nocoincidences]

5. There must be an online spirograph program somewhere!

I must go search....

And here is one of many out there!

http://www.artbylogic.com/parametricart/spirograph/spirograph.htm

[Hestia]

6. The Orbit of Venus is why the pentagram became a sacred symbol.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. After heliocentrism was generally accepted in the 17th century, then? (nt)

[DRoseDARs]

11. Ummm no. Not even kind of correct. nt

[Wednesdays]

14. ...

[Codeine]

15. Codswallop. nt

[Wounded Bear]

7. Cool...nt

[Javaman]

8. cosmic mandala nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. However, it's not a true orbital resonance

see eg http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/Some-Details-About-Transits-of-Venus.html

[MineralMan]

12. Most cool!

[a kennedy]

13. That is so awesome.......

love it.