Did Earth Once Share Its Orbit with a Mars-Sized Planet: possibly Nibiru?

Dirk Vander Ploeg's picture

Hidden in the mass of data from the Kepler telescope is a planetary system that has two of its apparent planets share the same orbit around their star. If the discovery is confirmed, it would support the theory that Earth once shared its orbit with a Mars-sized body, labeled Theia, that later collided with it, creating the moon.

The two planets are part of a four-planet system dubbed KOI-730 that circle their sun-like parent star every 9.8 days at exactly the same orbital distance, one permanently about 60 degrees ahead of the other. In their night sky, each would appear as a constant, blazing light.

When one body orbits a star or large object, there are two Lagrange points along the planet's orbit where a third body can orbit stably. These lie 60 degrees ahead of and 60 degrees behind the smaller object. A groups of asteroids called Trojans, for example, lie at these gravitaional sweet spots along Jupiter's orbit.

"Systems like this are not common, as this is the only one we have seen," says Jack Lissauer of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Lissauer and colleagues describe the KOI-730 system in a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal (arxiv.org/abs/1102.0543).

Will KOI-730's co-orbiting planets collide to form a moon someday? "That would be spectacular," says Richard Gott of Princeton. That may be so, but simulations by Bob Vanderbei at Princeton suggest the planets will continue to orbit in lockstep with each other for the next 2.22 million years at least.

What do you think?

About Dirk Vander Ploeg

Dirk Vander Ploeg's picture

Bio

Dirk Vander Ploeg is the publisher of UFODigest.com and other paranormal and UFO related websites. He is the author of the non-fiction book "Quest for MIddle-earth" and is currently writing a new book. He has worked in marketing for the Toronto Star and the Hamilton Spectator and as a publisher and writer for travel related and other magazines.

Role
Publisher

UFO Digest Newsletter

Get our FREE weekly newsletter featuring great articles, videos and more!

Syndicate content

Photo of the Week

UFO Flying Saucer

Photo taken by the friend Jacques at Layrac in France on February 28, 2012 at  15 H 47. See the Flying Saucers always below::

http://www.ufodigest.com/article/flying-saucer-over-layrac-france

Poll

Do you believe Planet X or Nibiru will pass by the earth in 2012?
Yes
27%
No
45%
Not sure
27%
Total votes: 102

 
 

 
 

© 1998-2010. «UFODIGEST.Com». When reproducing our materials in whole or in part, a hyperlink to UFODIGEST.Com should be made. The opinions and views of the authors do not always coincide with the point of view of UFODIGEST.Com's editors.

UFODIGEST.COM All rights reserved. FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. UFODigest.com Privacy Policy.

Syndicate content

Need a laugh Click here!

Kevin Smith Report


As host of a talk show that deals with the paranormal (and other things strange and unexplained), I get e-mail from listeners with all kinds of comments and questions. One question I’ve been asked a number of times is, “Have you ever had a paranormal experience?” Continues here!