The Second Focal Point

The orbits of the planets around the sun are not perfectly circular. The orbits actually form ellipses. An ellipse is a flattened circle with two focal points, whereas a circle only has one focal point. The center of the circle is it's only focal point. The orbit of a planet has the sun at one of the focal points of it's elliptical orbit. The following diagram shows an ellipse with it's two focal points.

LAGRANGIAN POINTS

Before going on, let's briefly review Lagrangian Points.

When there is a gravitational relationship between two astronomical objects a phenomenon called Lagrangian Points is created. These are the points where the gravity of the two objects balances out. The Lagrangian Points act as gravitational objects themselves. 

The orbit of the earth around the sun, for example, creates five Lagrangian Points. L1 is between the earth and the sun, where their gravity balances. L2 is the point beyond the orbit of the earth around the sun where the gravity of the two balances. L3 is on the diametrically opposite side of the sun from the earth. L4 and L5 are the points, at any given time in the earth's orbit around the sun, that form the vertices of an equilateral triangle with the earth and the sun. L4 is ahead of the earth in it's orbit and L5 is behind.

L1 and L2 are useful because a spacecraft placed there will orbit the sun at the same rate as the earth, even though it is closer to or further from the sun than the earth. The James Webb Space Telescope is at the Earth-Sun L2. Jupiter has large collections of asteroids in orbit around the sun at it's L4 and L5. An object at any of the Earth-Sun Lagrangian Points will orbit the sun at the same rate as the earth.

In this diagram the sun is the red circle and the earth is the green dot at right. The five Lagrangian Points are shown. The James Webb Space Telescope is at L2. L4 is ahead of the earth in it's orbit around the sun and L5 follows it. Remember that every pair of astronomical objects creates a completely different set of Lagrangian Points.

THE SECOND FOCAL POINT

The Second Focal Point, that I am writing about here, is not a Lagrangian Point but it is a related concept. Considering how Lagrangian Points operate, what about the other focal point in the elliptical orbit of a planet around the sun? Shouldn't it count for something? I believe that it does.

The planets are usually divided into two groups, the Inner Planets and the Outer Planets, with four planets each. The Outer Planets are far more massive than the Inner Planets, although of lower average density. Jupiter, the first of the Outer Planets going away from the sun, is about 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets combined. Jupiter is believed to be the oldest planet, and this indicates that the Outer Planets formed first.

The following diagram, from the Wikipedia article "Solar System" shows that the Inner Planets are much closer together than the Outer Planets. Since all of the planets are in elliptical orbits around the sun, this would mean that the distances between the First and Second Focal Points of the orbits of the Outer Planets are much further apart than those of the Inner Planets.

The planets all formed gradually by the gravitational agglomeration of fragments left over from a large star that exploded in a supernova. Only the largest stars will explode in a supernova. Some of the debris of the exploded star fell back together to form the present sun and planets. We know that the sun is such a second-generation star because it contains heavy elements that are beyond it's current stage in the nuclear fusion process.

What I find interesting is that, if we take the average distances of the Inner Planets from the sun, they fairly closely correspond to the distances between the First and Second Focal Points of the Outer Planets, although the distances to the Inner Planets are somewhat less.

(I know that most people use Metric but neighboring Canada converted to the Metric System when I was 15. At that point I learned the Metric System. But everything that I learned before that, like the distances of the planets from the sun, I remember in miles. But this is about relative distances and the unit that we use here is unimportant).

Mercury 36 million miles.

Venus 67 million miles.

Earth 93 million miles.

Mars 141 million miles

Now here is the distances between the First and Second Focal Points of the elliptical orbits of the Outer Planets.

Jupiter 47.5 million miles.

Saturn 101 million miles.

Uranus 170 million miles.

Neptune 50 million miles.

Given how the Lagrangian Points operate, we should expect that the Second Focal Points of the elliptical orbits of the planets should be a factor in the Solar System. We know that the planets formed from gradual agglomeration of fragments from the supernova by gravity, and that the Outer Planets likely formed first. The powerful gravity of Jupiter prevented the Asteroids from condensing into a planet.

So here is my hypothesis. The sun is at the First Focal Point of the elliptical orbits of all the planets. I found it interesting that the Inner and Outer Planets are completely different in nature but there are the same number, four, of both of them. The Inner Planets are close enough together, relatively speaking, to have formed one big planet. What I decided happened is that the Second Focal Points of the Outer Planets formed the boundaries of where a fragment of the supernova nearer the sun would go to form one of the Inner Planets or another.

It forms four concentric circles, with the sun at the center, and with each circle the distance from the sun of the distance between the two orbital Focal Points of one of the Outer Planets, so that the Second Focal Point of the Outer Planet was on the circle. The circles form the boundaries of where fragments from the supernova would go to form one of the Inner Planets or the next planet. This is why the distances from the sun of the circle are in the neighborhood of, but somewhat further than, the distances from the sun to the Inner Planets.

This analogy is not quite perfect because Neptune, the furthest planet from the sun, has an orbit that is close to being circular. But it seems clear that the Second Focal Points of the four Outer Planets formed the boundaries for fragments from the supernova to collect by gravity into the four Inner Planets.

THE MIRROR IMAGE SOLAR SYSTEM

What I find really interesting is how the two halves of the Solar System, the Inner and the Outer Planets, form a virtual mirror image of each other. This shows that there is coordination between the two. This coordination can only come by gravity, the same as with Lagrangian Points, and must be the Outer Planets influencing the Inner Planets, since the Outer Planets are far more massive.

There are four planets in each set. There is a pair of "sibling" planets in each set, fairly close to each other in nature and mass. The siblings of the Inner Planets are Earth and Venus and the siblings of the Outer Planets are Uranus and Neptune. In both cases, the orbits of the planets are next to each other and the more massive of the two is further from the sun.

But what is a mirror image about the two sets is that, in the Inner Planets, the remaining two planets, Mercury and Mars, are very much less massive than the two sibling planets. While in the Outer Planets the two remaining planets, Jupiter and Saturn, are very much more massive than the two sibling planets.