Monday, March 4, 2024

Creation Moment 3/5/2024 - Orbital Resonance

Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens,.... 
Isaiah 45:2

"Planets orbit their parent stars while separated by enormous distances – in our solar system, planets are like grains of sand in a
region the size of a football field.....sometimes, their orbits display striking patterns. 

For example, astronomers studying six planets orbiting a star 100 light years away have just found that they orbit their star with an almost rhythmic beat, in perfect synchrony. Each pair of planets completes their orbits in times that are the ratios of whole numbers, allowing the planets to align and exert a gravitational push and pull on the other during their orbit
This type of gravitational alignment is called orbital resonance, and it’s like a harmony between distant planets

Researchers have discovered over 5,600 exoplanets in the past 30 years, and their extraordinary diversity continues to surprise astronomers

In the solar system, Neptune and Pluto are in a 3:2 resonance. There’s also a triple resonance, 4:2:1, among Jupiter’s three moons: Ganymede, Europa and Io. In the time it takes Ganymede to orbit Jupiter, Europa orbits twice and Io orbits four times. 
Resonances occur naturally, when planets happen to have orbital periods that are the ratio of whole numbers. Musical intervals describe the relationship between two musical notes. In the musical analogy, important musical intervals based on ratios of frequencies are the fourth, 4:3, the fifth, 3:2, and the octave, 2:1. Anyone who plays the guitar or the piano might recognize these intervals.

The star Gliese 876 has three planets with orbit period ratios of 4:2:1, just like Jupiter’s three moons. Kepler 223 has four planets with ratios of 8:6:4:3.

The newest example of a resonant chain is the HD 110067 system. It’s about 100 light years away and has six sub-Neptune planets, a common type of exoplanet, with orbit ratios of 54:36:24:16:12:9." 
Astronomy