Grand Cycle of Planets

 

July 16, 2004

 

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/july16.html

 

Hi Eric:

 
I was just wondering if there was such a thing as a 'grand cycle' of the planets - where in X thousand years from now the planets are roughly in the same position as they are now?

 

Regards,

 

Steve

Sydney, Australia

 

 

Dear Steve,

 
A couple of years back I read in one of the major scientific journals, I don't recall which but I can dig it out for you, that based on the laws of probability, combined with the rather large size of the universe, there must be another one of you somewhere in creation. This is based on pure mathematics. The universe is simply too large for the pattern known as you not to come up again. Just think, he may be sitting on the Seine writing poetry in a café right now, in some other galaxy or maybe a few stars away from us.

 

That being said, I am reluctant to state that the 'grand cycle' of the planets never repeats in so many thousand or million years, even though that's an astronomically accurate statement. In pure theory, it absolutely must, even if it's nowhere near here.

 

Speaking in practical terms, here on our local Earth, it seems less likely. There are quite a few planets to reckon. Each one adds a variable that makes the whole possibility of an exact realignment more difficult. We see plenty of things that we've never seen before: the recent approach of Mars to the Earth in the summer of 2003; the Taurus alignment of 2000; and many others. We seem to live in an age of highly unusual occurrences. It's more a question of what's going to happen next rather than what's going to happen again.

 

In addition, while the planets may go round the Sun, the Sun is orbiting the galaxy in a cycle of about a quarter billion years. So even if some arbitrarily set group of planets were to realign in the same position today in 30 million years, the Sun would be in a different position relative to the stars around it. Plus, it may take more like thirty billion years for a grand pattern to repeat, and the life of our solar system is finite.

 

It is safe to presume, from our mortal standpoint, that everything is always in motion; that no day is like another; that at every moment, infinite variables enter the picture. (This is how it's possible to write a daily horoscope, by the way.) This is a situation that both astrology and astronomy are being compelled to deal with. By 1977, for example, there were about 2060 catalogued objects orbiting our Sun (No. 2060 was Chiron). By 2000, minor planet 20,000 Varuna had been discovered catalogued. By 2002, minor planet 50,000 Quaoar had been discovered catalogued. There are now about 250,000 known objects orbiting our Sun. This is an extremely fast rate of increase.

 

The acceleration is adding a factor of what Terence McKenna called "exponentially increasing randomness" to the study of either of the astro fiends, and represents a similar phenomenon in our lives, which seem to be growing exponentially more complex. Imagine if I told you as a 10 year old kid that you would be spending an hour a day deleting Spam. Of course, in another galaxy, there must be, by the laws of probability, a version of you who has entirely solved the problem of Spam. If so, please let us know how you did it.