Orbital issues

Now that I've got everyone talking/mailing/blogging about love (or the absence of), I'm tiring of the soul-wrenching debates. An interesting fact I have noted when reading fellow bloggers' posts about love, romance & relationships, is that the number of comments these posts receive blow sky-high in comparison with other topics. Interesting that we can be such different people, but there's one prominent topic we all seem to have on our minds at this point. Maybe it's the hints of spring.

So let's diverge to a totally different subject: Pluto has dual citizenship! It is now considered both a planet and a TNO (trans-neptunal object) - which is pretty much just one up from being an asteroid. And being only a fraction of the size of our moon, that kinda makes sense, but the question arises how many other similar-sized sun-orbiting objects there are out there? There goes our 9-planet solar system upbringing.

Speaking of planets, here's an interesting idea for the day: ever wonder what the true origin of the pentacle was? (Da Vinci Code readers, Brown wasn't too far off on this one). The planet Venus orbits the Sun at a slightly smaller distance than Earth, which mean it has a shorter distance to travel for one revolusion. Thus for each revolusion of Venus, Earth lags behind a bit more - and the two planets are only in line with eachother (& the Sun) every 8 years. During that time, there are 5 points in time when Venus, Earth & the sun are in line but with the sun separating the two planets. If these positions of Venus with respect to the Sun are pin-pointed & numbered according to time-line, then imaginary lines drawn to link them in numerical order, they constitute a perfectly proportioned pentacle.

"Perfect" in the sense that exactly the same ratio exists between each bisected line (distance from point tip to base of central pentagon). This phenomenon has indeed made this shape, and thus its origin Venus, symbols of perfection and beauty, as proclaimed by Dan Brown and many other fiction or historical authors. As you can see on the diagram, historically and traditionally the astrological symbol representing Venus is used to represent the "female" (and the symbol of Mars the "male").

So ladies, there's a reason to drink to your gender tonight and to appreciate your girlfriends!