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The 'Counter-Earth' is a first hypothesized by the presocratic philosopher Philolaus to support his non-geocentric cosmology, in which all objects in the universe revolve around a Central Fire. The Greek word "'Antichthon'" means "Counter-Earth."
By 500 BC most contemporary philosophers considered the Earth to be spherical - there was obvious evidence for this from the behaviour of objects near the horizon. This meant that all objects on the surface of the Earth had to be attracted to its centre in some way, otherwise they would fall off. It also required other objects, such the stars and planets, to float above the earth in relation to its centre, otherwise they would presumably move rapidly away. This argument - reasonable in view of the data available at the time - resulted in a geocentric world view.
When the movements of celestial objects convinced Philolaus that the world must be not only turning on its own axis but revolving around a fixed point elsewhere in space, he was faced with the problem of explaining how a spherical world could move in this way without spilling everything on the surface into space. He came to the conclusion that the directions of up and down do not exist in space, except in that all things must fall towards the center of the universe, around which all things (including the Earth, Sun, and all the planets) must revolve. Our earth must be a practically flat world and the underside of our Earth must face this fiery, central point at all times, otherwise we would fall off.
This created a contradiction within the Pythagorean school of thought. Since planets, in their understanding, were composed of a fiery or ethereal matter having little or no density, they could quite easily rotate eccentric to the Earth without becoming off balance. However, the Earth was obviously made of the dense elements of Earth and Water. If there were a single Earth revolving at some distance from the center of space, the universe's center of balance would not coincide with its spatial center. Since this is the point towards which things fall, the earth must have a counter-balance of the same mass or the universe would be flung apart. This problem led Philolaus to develop idea of a Counter-Earth, a second, flat Earth, identical but opposite to ours in every way. This conception of the solar system is outlined in the diagram at the right, with Counter-Earth referred to as Antichthon. The upper illustration depicts Earth at night while the lower one depicts Earth in the day. (In order to prevent confusion it should be noted that the diagram fails to show that Earth and Counter-Earth are flat and point away from the Central Fire). It is likely that Philolaus believed that the whole orbit of Earth was comprised of an ethereal sphere, with the Earth and Counter-Earth being local dense points on the surface.
This theory is a very creditable attempt to incorporate all known cosmological data at the time, and indicates the sophistication of Classical Greek thinking. The ideas of a flat earth, Counter-Earth, and Central Fire were all eventually superseded by the theory of Gravitation which is currently held by the scientific community, that describes a spherical earth rotating around both its own axis and the sun. The Counter-Earth is still a popular motif in science fiction and fantasy writing today, usually serving as an allegory for the real Earth.
In the 1st century A.D., after the idea of a spherical Earth superseded the original Counter-Earth theory, Pomponius Mela, a Latin cosmographer, developed an updated version of the idea, wherein a spherical Earth must have a more or less balanced distribution of land and water. Mela drew the first map on which the mysterious continent of Earth appears in the unknown half of Earth - our antipodes. This continent he inscribed with the name Antichthones.[1]
If such a planet actually existed in our current scientific cosmology, as a spherical world that revolved around the sun, it would be permanently hidden behind the sun but nevertheless detectable from Earth, because of its gravitational influence upon the other planets of the Solar System. No such influence has been detected, and indeed space probes sent to Venus, Mars and other places could not have successfully flown by or landed on their targets if a Counter-Earth existed, as it was not accounted for in navigational calculation.
Since Earth has an elliptical orbit and its orbital velocity varies slightly; a Counter-Earth would have to be in a very precisely tuned orbit to remain behind the Sun at all times. Further, a Counter-Earth's orbit would be unstable on a relatively short geological timescale, and would soon drift away from being exactly opposite Earth's location.
A Counter-Earth would be at the (unstable) Lagrange Point, L3. If such a counter Earth existed with the same mass as our Earth, then from an orbital point of view, each Earth would be at the L3 Lagrange Point of the other, so both Earths would quickly drift away from their stable positions and the orbits would cease to be regular.
The Sun-Jupiter Trojan asteroid system is an example of a stable Lagrange orbit. Equation 10 in section 14 of ''Lectures on Celestial Mechanics'' by Siegel and Moser shows the relation between the masses of the bodies and the distances between them in the case of a colinear orbit. However, these linear orbits are not as stable as, say, the equilateral Lagrange orbit. Hilda asteroids do not visit L3 of Jupiter-Sun system, though they do come close to it in their curious orbits.
According to some Greek Mythology, Antichthon was placed between Earth and the center of the universe, the throne of Zeus, to stop man from looking at God directly.
★ In the first episode of the radio show ''The Adventures of Superman'', (debuting February 12, 1940), the planet Krypton was referred to as "situated on the other side of the Sun" from the Earth.
★ The planet Mondas, home of the Cybermen in the television series ''Doctor Who'', was originally on the opposite side of the sun from Earth before being cast into interstellar space.
★ The 1987 television cartoon ''Dinosaucers'' was based upon the premise of intelligent dinosaurs coming to Earth from a Counter-Earth planet called Reptilon.
★ The planets Fire & Water in the Science Fiction show ''Lexx''.
★ The 1999 animated series: Spider-Man Unlimited.
★ In the Japanese anime series Sousei no Aquarion's (or '''Genesis of Aquarion''' (創聖のアクエリオン, ''Sōsei no Akuerion?'') 7th episode, the main antagonist's right hand maiden refers to a bright, three-dimensional decahedron (first believed to be a Dodecahedron, but confirmed to be a perfect Decahedron) as the "power of the Antichthon holy creation geometry". This involves the Decad, a symbol made by Pythagoras related to the Counter-Earth theory and the perfect nature of numbers.
★ Gerry Anderson's 1969 film ''Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'', (also known as ''Doppelgänger''), features a Counter-Earth which is identical to Earth in every respect except that left and right are reversed.
★ In the 1973 film ''The Stranger'', the Counter-Earth (known as Terra by its inhabitants) is culturally and evolutionarily identical to Earth in nearly every respect, with the most obvious difference being the planet's three moons. However, it appears to have skewed significantly sometime in the last century or two. An astronaut from Earth crashes there, and discovers a strange dictatorship known as the Perfect Order. Other than the fact that everyone is left-handed, technology is about the same, although geared for such purposes as monitoring of the population to assure adherence to the Order.
★ In the tokusatsu kaiju film ''Gamera vs. Guiron'', Gamera travels to a Counter-Earth known as Terra in order to save a pair of kidnapped children.
★ , a 1956 science fiction tokusatsu film produced by Daiei, depicted a planet-- "Planet 'R'"-- on a collision course with Earth. ''Warning from Space'' has one-eyed, starfish-shaped aliens from the planet Paira -- an Earth-like planet that shared the same orbit as Earth but on the opposite side of the Sun -- who take on human forms to warn the earth about the impending disaster.
★ in the 1951 movie When Worlds Collide the planet at the end of the movie that the survivors of the doomed earth go to is similar to the counter earth.
★ Counter-Earth was used by John Norman as the setting for his Gor novels.
★ A version of it has appeared in multiple stories published by Marvel Comics. See Counter-Earth (comics).
★ The series of graphic novels ''Les Cités Obscures'' by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters features a group of city-states on a Counter-Earth.
★ Paul Capon wrote a series of novels, starting with "The Other Side of the Sun" (also serialised on radio by the BBC) set on ''Antigeos'', a Counter-Earth. The other two novels in the series are entitled "The Other Side of the Planet" and "Down to Earth".
★ The X12 series of books by Olof Möller prominetly features a Counter-Earth called Anti-Tellus.
★ The role playing game , contains a planetoid called Autochthonia in the Counter-earth position in the games cosmology. This is the location of The Computer which is central to the cybernetic convention of mages, Iteration X
★ Iannis Xenakis wrote a piece of music called ''Antichthon''.
★ Central Fire
★ Globus Cassus
1. Pomponius Mela. de Chorographia.
★ ''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. ISBN 1-58542-250-9
★ ''Book of Earths'', by Edna Kenton, Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-2856-3
★ Burch, George Bosworth. The Counter-Earth. Osirus, vol. 11. Saint Catherines Press, 1954. p. 267-294
★ History of the Pythagorean school hosted by Drury University, Springfield, Missouri
Pogi si Kristoffer Zurbito
| Contents |
| The need for a Counter-Earth |
| Scientific analysis |
| Greek Mythology |
| References in culture |
| Television & radio |
| Film |
| Books and comic books |
| Music |
| See also |
| References |
| Further reading |
| External links |
The need for a Counter-Earth
From "Dante and the Early Astronomers" by M. A. Orr, 1913.
By 500 BC most contemporary philosophers considered the Earth to be spherical - there was obvious evidence for this from the behaviour of objects near the horizon. This meant that all objects on the surface of the Earth had to be attracted to its centre in some way, otherwise they would fall off. It also required other objects, such the stars and planets, to float above the earth in relation to its centre, otherwise they would presumably move rapidly away. This argument - reasonable in view of the data available at the time - resulted in a geocentric world view.
When the movements of celestial objects convinced Philolaus that the world must be not only turning on its own axis but revolving around a fixed point elsewhere in space, he was faced with the problem of explaining how a spherical world could move in this way without spilling everything on the surface into space. He came to the conclusion that the directions of up and down do not exist in space, except in that all things must fall towards the center of the universe, around which all things (including the Earth, Sun, and all the planets) must revolve. Our earth must be a practically flat world and the underside of our Earth must face this fiery, central point at all times, otherwise we would fall off.
This created a contradiction within the Pythagorean school of thought. Since planets, in their understanding, were composed of a fiery or ethereal matter having little or no density, they could quite easily rotate eccentric to the Earth without becoming off balance. However, the Earth was obviously made of the dense elements of Earth and Water. If there were a single Earth revolving at some distance from the center of space, the universe's center of balance would not coincide with its spatial center. Since this is the point towards which things fall, the earth must have a counter-balance of the same mass or the universe would be flung apart. This problem led Philolaus to develop idea of a Counter-Earth, a second, flat Earth, identical but opposite to ours in every way. This conception of the solar system is outlined in the diagram at the right, with Counter-Earth referred to as Antichthon. The upper illustration depicts Earth at night while the lower one depicts Earth in the day. (In order to prevent confusion it should be noted that the diagram fails to show that Earth and Counter-Earth are flat and point away from the Central Fire). It is likely that Philolaus believed that the whole orbit of Earth was comprised of an ethereal sphere, with the Earth and Counter-Earth being local dense points on the surface.
This theory is a very creditable attempt to incorporate all known cosmological data at the time, and indicates the sophistication of Classical Greek thinking. The ideas of a flat earth, Counter-Earth, and Central Fire were all eventually superseded by the theory of Gravitation which is currently held by the scientific community, that describes a spherical earth rotating around both its own axis and the sun. The Counter-Earth is still a popular motif in science fiction and fantasy writing today, usually serving as an allegory for the real Earth.
In the 1st century A.D., after the idea of a spherical Earth superseded the original Counter-Earth theory, Pomponius Mela, a Latin cosmographer, developed an updated version of the idea, wherein a spherical Earth must have a more or less balanced distribution of land and water. Mela drew the first map on which the mysterious continent of Earth appears in the unknown half of Earth - our antipodes. This continent he inscribed with the name Antichthones.[1]
Scientific analysis
If such a planet actually existed in our current scientific cosmology, as a spherical world that revolved around the sun, it would be permanently hidden behind the sun but nevertheless detectable from Earth, because of its gravitational influence upon the other planets of the Solar System. No such influence has been detected, and indeed space probes sent to Venus, Mars and other places could not have successfully flown by or landed on their targets if a Counter-Earth existed, as it was not accounted for in navigational calculation.
Since Earth has an elliptical orbit and its orbital velocity varies slightly; a Counter-Earth would have to be in a very precisely tuned orbit to remain behind the Sun at all times. Further, a Counter-Earth's orbit would be unstable on a relatively short geological timescale, and would soon drift away from being exactly opposite Earth's location.
A Counter-Earth would be at the (unstable) Lagrange Point, L3. If such a counter Earth existed with the same mass as our Earth, then from an orbital point of view, each Earth would be at the L3 Lagrange Point of the other, so both Earths would quickly drift away from their stable positions and the orbits would cease to be regular.
The Sun-Jupiter Trojan asteroid system is an example of a stable Lagrange orbit. Equation 10 in section 14 of ''Lectures on Celestial Mechanics'' by Siegel and Moser shows the relation between the masses of the bodies and the distances between them in the case of a colinear orbit. However, these linear orbits are not as stable as, say, the equilateral Lagrange orbit. Hilda asteroids do not visit L3 of Jupiter-Sun system, though they do come close to it in their curious orbits.
Greek Mythology
According to some Greek Mythology, Antichthon was placed between Earth and the center of the universe, the throne of Zeus, to stop man from looking at God directly.
References in culture
Television & radio
★ In the first episode of the radio show ''The Adventures of Superman'', (debuting February 12, 1940), the planet Krypton was referred to as "situated on the other side of the Sun" from the Earth.
★ The planet Mondas, home of the Cybermen in the television series ''Doctor Who'', was originally on the opposite side of the sun from Earth before being cast into interstellar space.
★ The 1987 television cartoon ''Dinosaucers'' was based upon the premise of intelligent dinosaurs coming to Earth from a Counter-Earth planet called Reptilon.
★ The planets Fire & Water in the Science Fiction show ''Lexx''.
★ The 1999 animated series: Spider-Man Unlimited.
★ In the Japanese anime series Sousei no Aquarion's (or '''Genesis of Aquarion''' (創聖のアクエリオン, ''Sōsei no Akuerion?'') 7th episode, the main antagonist's right hand maiden refers to a bright, three-dimensional decahedron (first believed to be a Dodecahedron, but confirmed to be a perfect Decahedron) as the "power of the Antichthon holy creation geometry". This involves the Decad, a symbol made by Pythagoras related to the Counter-Earth theory and the perfect nature of numbers.
Film
★ Gerry Anderson's 1969 film ''Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'', (also known as ''Doppelgänger''), features a Counter-Earth which is identical to Earth in every respect except that left and right are reversed.
★ In the 1973 film ''The Stranger'', the Counter-Earth (known as Terra by its inhabitants) is culturally and evolutionarily identical to Earth in nearly every respect, with the most obvious difference being the planet's three moons. However, it appears to have skewed significantly sometime in the last century or two. An astronaut from Earth crashes there, and discovers a strange dictatorship known as the Perfect Order. Other than the fact that everyone is left-handed, technology is about the same, although geared for such purposes as monitoring of the population to assure adherence to the Order.
★ In the tokusatsu kaiju film ''Gamera vs. Guiron'', Gamera travels to a Counter-Earth known as Terra in order to save a pair of kidnapped children.
★ , a 1956 science fiction tokusatsu film produced by Daiei, depicted a planet-- "Planet 'R'"-- on a collision course with Earth. ''Warning from Space'' has one-eyed, starfish-shaped aliens from the planet Paira -- an Earth-like planet that shared the same orbit as Earth but on the opposite side of the Sun -- who take on human forms to warn the earth about the impending disaster.
★ in the 1951 movie When Worlds Collide the planet at the end of the movie that the survivors of the doomed earth go to is similar to the counter earth.
Books and comic books
★ Counter-Earth was used by John Norman as the setting for his Gor novels.
★ A version of it has appeared in multiple stories published by Marvel Comics. See Counter-Earth (comics).
★ The series of graphic novels ''Les Cités Obscures'' by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters features a group of city-states on a Counter-Earth.
★ Paul Capon wrote a series of novels, starting with "The Other Side of the Sun" (also serialised on radio by the BBC) set on ''Antigeos'', a Counter-Earth. The other two novels in the series are entitled "The Other Side of the Planet" and "Down to Earth".
★ The X12 series of books by Olof Möller prominetly features a Counter-Earth called Anti-Tellus.
★ The role playing game , contains a planetoid called Autochthonia in the Counter-earth position in the games cosmology. This is the location of The Computer which is central to the cybernetic convention of mages, Iteration X
Music
★ Iannis Xenakis wrote a piece of music called ''Antichthon''.
See also
★ Central Fire
★ Globus Cassus
References
1. Pomponius Mela. de Chorographia.
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. ISBN 1-58542-250-9
★ ''Book of Earths'', by Edna Kenton, Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-2856-3
External links
★ Burch, George Bosworth. The Counter-Earth. Osirus, vol. 11. Saint Catherines Press, 1954. p. 267-294
★ History of the Pythagorean school hosted by Drury University, Springfield, Missouri
Pogi si Kristoffer Zurbito
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