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The Counter-Earth is a hypothetical body of the Solar System that orbits on the other side of the solar system from Earth. A Counter-Earth or ''Antichthon'' ( el, Ἀντίχθων) was hypothesized by the pre-Socratic
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
Philolaus Philolaus (; grc, Φιλόλαος, ''Philólaos''; ) was a Greek Pythagorean and pre-Socratic philosopher. He was born in a Greek colony in Italy and migrated to Greece. Philolaus has been called one of three most prominent figures in the Pyt ...
(c. 470 – c. 385 BC) to support his non-
geocentric In astronomy, the geocentric model (also known as geocentrism, often exemplified specifically by the Ptolemaic system) is a superseded description of the Universe with Earth at the center. Under most geocentric models, the Sun, Moon, stars, an ...
cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
, in which all objects in the universe revolve around a "Central Fire" (unseen from Earth and distinct from the Sun which also revolves around it). In modern times a hypothetical planet always on the other side of the Sun from
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
has been called a "Counter-Earth", and has been a recurring theme in
UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are ide ...
claims, as well as in fiction (particularly
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
).


Greek Pythagorean universe

An astronomical system positing that the Earth, Moon, Sun, planets and unseen "counter-earth" revolve around an unseen "Central Fire" was developed in the 5th century BC and attributed to the Pythagorean
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
Philolaus Philolaus (; grc, Φιλόλαος, ''Philólaos''; ) was a Greek Pythagorean and pre-Socratic philosopher. He was born in a Greek colony in Italy and migrated to Greece. Philolaus has been called one of three most prominent figures in the Pyt ...
. Philolaus' universe moved "the earth from the center of the cosmos,"Philolaus
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Carl Huffman.
and provided the insight that "the apparent motion of the heavenly bodies" was (in large part) due to "the real motion of the observer"—i.e. Earth. In Philolaus' system, the Earth and Counter-Earth revolved around the unseen Central Fire every 24 hours, while the Moon's revolution was monthly, and the Sun's yearly. It was the Earth's speedy travel past the slower moving Sun that resulted in the appearance on Earth of the Sun rising and setting. Further from the Central Fire, the Planets' movement was slower still, and the outermost "sky" (i.e. stars) probably fixed.


Counter-Earth

Along with the Central Fire, the "mysterious" Counter-Earth (''Antichthon'') was the other heavenly body not visible from Earth.
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
described it as "another Earth," from which Greek scholar George Burch infers that it must be similar in size, shape and constitution to Earth. Some (such as astronomer John Louis Emil Dreyer) have thought that Philolaus had it following an orbit such that it was always located between Earth and the Central Fire. However, Burch argues that Philolaus must have thought that it orbited on the other side of the Fire from Earth. Since "counter" means "opposite," and opposite could only be in respect to the Central Fire, it follows that the Counter-Earth must be orbiting 180 degrees from Earth. According to Aristotle—a critic of the Pythagoreans—the function of the Counter-Earth was to explain "eclipses of the moon and their frequency", which could not be explained by Earth alone blocking the light of the sun if Earth did not revolve around the sun. Aristotle suggested that it was also introduced "to raise the number of heavenly bodies around the central fire from nine to ten, which the Pythagoreans regarded as the perfect number".Burch, George Bosworth. The Counter-Earth
''Osirus'', vol. 11. Saint Catherines Press, 1954. p. 267-294
However, Burch believes Aristotle was having a joke "at the expense of Pythagorean number theory," and that the true purpose of the Counter-Earth was to "balance" Philolaus' cosmos—balance being needed because without a counter there would be only one dense, massive object in the system—Earth. Although his system had both the Earth and the Planets orbiting a single point, the
ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
did not consider Earth a "planet." In the time before
Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
could observe from his telescope that planets were spheres like Earth, they were thought to be different from stars only in brightness and in their motion, and like stars composed of a fiery or ethereal matter having little or no density. However, the Earth was obviously made of the dense elements of earth and water. According to Burch,
If there was a single Earth revolving at some distance from the center of space, then the universe's center of gravity, located in the Earth as its only dense body, would not coincide with its spatial center ... The universe, consequently, would be off center, so to speak—lopsided and asymmetric—a notion repugnant to any Greek, and doubly so to a Pythagorean.
This could be corrected by another body with the same mass as Earth, orbiting the same central point but 180 degrees from Earth—the Counter-Earth.


Later

In the 1st century A.D., after the idea of a spherical Earth had gained more general acceptance,
Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died  AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...
, a Latin cosmographer, developed an updated version of the idea, wherein a
spherical Earth Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of figure of the Earth as a sphere. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Greek philosophers. ...
must have a more or less balanced distribution of land and water, even though all known continents were in the northern hemisphere. Mela drew a map which postulated a continental landmass in the unknown, southern half of Earth—the
antipodes In geography, the antipode () of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points ''antipodal'' () to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass through ...
—below the equator and the tropics, climes which he believed uninhabitable and impassably hot. Mela ascribed the name "Antichthones" to the inhabitants of this continent.


Modern era

Philolaus's ideas were all eventually superseded by the modern realization that a spherical Earth rotating on its own axis was one of several spherical planets following the laws of gravity and revolving around a much larger Sun. The idea of a Counter-Earth waned after the heliocentric model of the solar system became widely accepted from the 16th century. In the contemporary world, "Counter-Earth" usually refers to a hypothetical planet with an orbit as Burch described, on the other side of the "Central fire"—i.e. the Sun. It cannot be seen from Earth, not because Earth faces away from the center, but because the Sun's great size blocks its view. It has been a recurring motif in
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
, fiction—often serving as an
allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...
for the real Earth—and
UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are ide ...
claims.The Ufo Book of Lists
By STEPHEN J SPIGNESI, Stephen J. Spignesi,
The 1968 '' Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects'' headed by Edward Condon at the
University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...
even included a "Numerical Experiment on the Possible Existence of an 'Anti-Earth as an appendix.


Detectability

A Counter-Earth could still be detected from the Earth for a number of reasons. Even if the Sun blocked its view from Earth, a Counter-Earth would have gravitational influence (
perturbation Perturbation or perturb may refer to: * Perturbation theory, mathematical methods that give approximate solutions to problems that cannot be solved exactly * Perturbation (geology), changes in the nature of alluvial deposits over time * Perturbat ...
) upon the other planets, comets and man-made probes of the
Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
. Researchers have detected no such influence, and indeed space probes sent to
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
,
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
and other places could not have successfully flown by or landed on their targets if a Counter-Earth existed, as the navigational calculations for their journeys did not take any putative Counter-Earth into account. Roughly speaking, anything larger than in diameter should have been detected.Could There Be a Planet Hidden on the Opposite Side of our Sun? PopSci asks the scientist who has peered around it
By Danny Freedman, PopSci , 20 April 2009
Any planetary sized body 180 degrees from Earth should also have been visible to some space probes, such as NASA's
STEREO Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
coronagraph probes (two spacecraft launched into orbits around the Sun in 2006, one farther ahead of and one behind the Earth's orbit) which would have seen the Counter-Earth during the first half of 2007. The separation of the STEREO spacecraft from Earth would give them a view of the L3 point during the early phase of the mission. A Counter-Earth would also eventually be visible from Earth because the gravitational forces of the other planets on it would make its own orbit unstable.
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
has 82% of the mass of Earth and would come within 0.3  AU of the location of a Counter-Earth every 20 months, providing considerable gravitational pull that over the years would move its orbit into sight of observers on Earth. For Counter-Earth orbiting the same path as Earth to always stay 180 degrees from Earth, the two planets would have to have circular orbits, but Earth's orbit is elliptical. According to
Kepler's second law In astronomy, Kepler's laws of planetary motion, published by Johannes Kepler between 1609 and 1619, describe the orbits of planets around the Sun. The laws modified the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, replacing its circular orbits ...
, a planet revolves faster when it is close to the star, so a Counter-Earth following the Earth on the same orbit with half a year of delay would sometimes not be exactly 180 degrees from Earth.


References in culture

*'' Twin Earths'' is an American
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...
written by
Oskar Lebeck Oskar Lebeck (August 30, 1903 – December 20, 1966) was a stage designer and an illustrator, writer and editor (mostly of children's literature) who is best known for his role in establishing Dell Comics during the 1930s and 1940s period known a ...
and drawn by Alden McWilliams that ran in
Sunday Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In most Western countries, Sunday is a day of rest and a part of the weekend. It is often considered the first day of the week. For most observant adherents of Christianity, Sund ...
and
daily Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
newspapers from 1952 until 1963.
Ron Goulart Ronald Joseph Goulart (; January 13, 1933 – January 14, 2022) was an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author. He published novelizations and other work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson, Co ...
, ''The Funnies : 100 years of American comic strips''. Holbrook, Mass. : Adams Pub.,1995. (pp. 194-5).
The strip was distributed by
United Feature Syndicate United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along ...
. The daily strip began on June 16, 1952, the Sunday on March 1, 1953. The Sunday was drawn in a
half page Comic strip formats vary widely from publication to publication, so that the same newspaper comic strip may appear in a half-dozen different formats with different numbers of panels, different sizes of panels and different arrangement of panels. ...
format, but it was available in smaller formats with dropped panels. *
Gor Gor () is the fictional setting for a series of sword and planet novels written by philosophy professor John Lange, writing as John Norman. The setting was first described in the 1966 novel ''Tarnsman of Gor''. The series is inspired by science f ...
is the name of the Counter-Earth that is the setting for a series of 35 novels by John Norman.Zero Point: The Counter-Earth
/ref> *The 1969
science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
film ''
Doppelgänger A doppelgänger (), a compound noun formed by combining the two nouns (double) and (walker or goer) (), doppelgaenger or doppelganger is a biologically unrelated look-alike, or a double, of a living person. In fiction and mythology, a doppelg ...
'' (also known as ''Journey to the Far Side of the Sun''), depicts the discovery and investigation of another planet sharing Earth's orbit on the opposite side of the Sun. *Two 2011 films—''
Another Earth Another or variant may refer to: * anOther or Another Magazine, culture and fashion magazine * ''Another'' (novel), a Japanese horror novel ** ''Another'' (film), a Japanese 2012 live-action film based on the novel * Another River, a river in the ...
'' and
Lars von Trier Lars von Trier (''né'' Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Having garnered a reputation as a highly ambitious, polarizing filmmaker, he has been the subject of several controversies: Cannes, in addition to nominat ...
's film ''
Melancholia Melancholia or melancholy (from el, µέλαινα χολή ',Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 meaning black bile) is a concept found throughout ancient, medieval and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly d ...
''—feature a plot in which a planet emerges from behind the Sun and approaches Earth. *Several Marvel Comics or spinoffs of comics were set, or had parts of a story set, on Counter-Earth. These include the High Evolutionary, the '' Spider-Man Unlimited'' TV series and the associated comic book, ''Infinity Crusade: Paradise Omega'', and the Heroes Reborn Earth ("more of a Pocket Dimension than an actual planet"). *In ''The Adventures Of Superman'' radio series, the planet Krypton is said to be "situated on the other side of the Sun" from the Earth in the first episode. *'' Antikhthon'', a piece of music by
Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde c ...
. * In the 1969
kaiju is a Japanese media genre that focuses on stories involving giant monsters. The word ''kaiju'' can also refer to the giant monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other monster ...
film '' Gamera vs. Guiron'', a Counter-Earth named "Terra" exists on the opposite side of the Solar System to Earth, but presumably within the same habitable zone. A UFO takes two boys to the planet, where they are threatened by a pair of the final members of the Terran race, who were decimated by extraterrestrial Space Gyaos, and their "guard dog" monster Guiron. Gamera comes to Terra to save the children and, after a long fight, is eventually victorious against Guiron. * In '' The Stranger'' (also known as ''Stranded in Space''), astronaut Neil Stryker accidentally finds himself on a planet called Terra, which is described very similarly to the one in ''Gamera vs. Guiron'', but the only other connection between these two movies is that they were the both used in episodes of the third season of ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1 ...
'', with only two episodes between them. *In ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
'', the planet
Mondas The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. The Cybermen are a species of space-faring cyborgs who often forcefully and painfully convert human beings ( ...
was once a Counter-Earth that left Earth's orbit when the Moon arrived from outer space and the gravitational fields were unbalanced. The planet floated to the extremes of the Solar System and froze so that its inhabitants were forced to turn themselves into a half-human, half-machine species, the
Cybermen The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. The Cybermen are a species of space-faring cyborgs who often forcefully and painfully convert human beings ( ...
, as revealed in Season 4 episode '' The Tenth Planet''. Previously, in 1963, the ''Doctor Who'' production team commissioned scriptwriter Malcolm Hulke to write '' The Hidden Planet'', a story set on a Counter-Earth. The script was eventually abandoned, but eight subsequent Doctor Who scripts written or co-written by Hulke were televised between 1967 and 1974. * Contemporary Greek science-fiction-fantasy author Dimosthenis Liakopoulos has described Arakoula-1 as a sister planet of
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
in his book ''The Planet of Silence''. *In the science fiction television series
Lexx ''Lexx'' (also known as ''LEXX: The Dark Zone Stories'' and ''Tales from a Parallel Universe'') is a science fiction television series created by Lex Gigeroff and brothers Paul Donovan (writer), Paul and Michael Donovan (producer), Michael Dono ...
, twin planets Fire and Water orbit each other and counter-orbit the Earth.


See also

*
Pythagorean astronomical system An astronomical system positing that the Earth, Moon, Sun, and planets revolve around an unseen "Central Fire" was developed in the fifth century BC and has been attributed to the Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus. The system has been called "the ...
* Globus Cassus * Co-orbital moon *
Fictional planets of the Solar System The fictional portrayal of the Solar System has often included planets, moons, and other celestial objects which do not actually exist in reality. Some of these objects were, at one time, seriously considered as hypothetical planets which were ei ...


Notes


References


Further reading

*''The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy'', by Manly P. Hall, Philosophical Research Society Inc. *''Book of Earths'', by Edna Kenton, Kessinger Publishing.


External links

* {{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System Ancient Greek astronomy Early scientific cosmologies Non-scientific hypothetical planets Hypothetical bodies of the Solar System