Post by MCDemuth on Mar 17, 2019 2:00:24 GMT
That only depends on how one "chooses" to define the word "Closest"...
What’s the Closest Planet to Earth? Not Venus, Scientists Say
What is the closest planet to Earth? The answer most people would give is Venus. But … it might actually be Mercury.
Although Venus is the planet that comes closest to Earth as it sweeps by on its orbit, Mercury stays the closest to Earth the longest, according to a commentary published Tuesday (March 12) in the magazine Physics Today.
"By some phenomenon of carelessness, ambiguity, or groupthink, science popularizers have disseminated information based on a flawed assumption about the average distance between planets," Tom Stockman, a Ph.D. student at the University of Alabama; Gabriel Monroe, a mechanical engineer at the U.S. Army's Engineer Research and Development Center; and Samuel Cordner, a mechanical engineer at NASA wrote in the commentary. [See Photos of Meteorites from Around the World]
When people calculate the distance between two planets, they usually subtract the two planets' average distances from the sun. But here's the thing: That only calculates the distance between two planets when they're closest to each other, they said. Some of the time, Venus is all the way on the opposite side of the Sun because the two planets move at different speeds.
In the commentary, the researchers devised a new mathematical technique, called the point-circle method, to measure the distances between planets. This method averages the distance between a bunch of points on each planet's orbit, thereby taking time into consideration.
When measured that way, Mercury was closest to Earth most of the time. Not only that, but Mercury was also the closest planet to Saturn, and Neptune, and all of the other planets. The researchers checked their findings by mapping out where the planets were in their orbits every 24 hours for 10,000 years.
However, not everyone agrees with this new definition of "closest" planet.
"Suppose you live in a house where the people who live next door to you spend half the year someplace, maybe you live in Wisconsin and your nearest neighbors spend seven months of the long winters in Florida," said Steven Beckwith, the director of the Space Science Laboratory and professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, who was not part of the commentary. "During the winter, the people in the next house over would be closer to you."
But most people would still say that their closest neighbors are the ones who live immediately next door for the rest of the year, Beckwith told Live Science. "It is an interesting way of redefining 'closest,' but it is hardly profound."
www.space.com/closest-planet-earth.html
Yeah Right... "Flawed Assumption" my ass...
Sounds like Tom Stockman wrote this "interpretive" paper, just to get himself a pay raise and to make himself seem important.
This is nothing new... We've always known, that when Venus is orbiting on the other side of the sun, that Mercury could be closer to us at that time...
But, as the article points out, that is NOT how most people will define "Closest"...
And, by the way, "WINTER" has nothing to do with anything... When home owners, live in Florida, are on vacation, have surgery at the Hospital, go camping and fishing for the weekend, go to Work, or shop for groceries....It doesn't change that fact, that we still define neighbors as the residences (land/property) closest to our homes, and not by the people who live in them...
In other words, just because a homemaker, who lives several houses down the street, and never goes anywhere... Doesn't mean that the people, who live next door, who went to work for the day on the other side of town, are no longer considered to be our closest neighbors.
And so, the house/property/land (call it whatever you want), is the ORBIT of Venus. That is next door to us, and doesn't change when Venus is "away" on the other side of the Sun.
In My Opinion, This is just a "False Equivalency" comparison... Because, TIME & DISTANCE are two different terms... "Apples & Oranges"!
What’s the Closest Planet to Earth? Not Venus, Scientists Say
What is the closest planet to Earth? The answer most people would give is Venus. But … it might actually be Mercury.
Although Venus is the planet that comes closest to Earth as it sweeps by on its orbit, Mercury stays the closest to Earth the longest, according to a commentary published Tuesday (March 12) in the magazine Physics Today.
"By some phenomenon of carelessness, ambiguity, or groupthink, science popularizers have disseminated information based on a flawed assumption about the average distance between planets," Tom Stockman, a Ph.D. student at the University of Alabama; Gabriel Monroe, a mechanical engineer at the U.S. Army's Engineer Research and Development Center; and Samuel Cordner, a mechanical engineer at NASA wrote in the commentary. [See Photos of Meteorites from Around the World]
When people calculate the distance between two planets, they usually subtract the two planets' average distances from the sun. But here's the thing: That only calculates the distance between two planets when they're closest to each other, they said. Some of the time, Venus is all the way on the opposite side of the Sun because the two planets move at different speeds.
In the commentary, the researchers devised a new mathematical technique, called the point-circle method, to measure the distances between planets. This method averages the distance between a bunch of points on each planet's orbit, thereby taking time into consideration.
When measured that way, Mercury was closest to Earth most of the time. Not only that, but Mercury was also the closest planet to Saturn, and Neptune, and all of the other planets. The researchers checked their findings by mapping out where the planets were in their orbits every 24 hours for 10,000 years.
However, not everyone agrees with this new definition of "closest" planet.
"Suppose you live in a house where the people who live next door to you spend half the year someplace, maybe you live in Wisconsin and your nearest neighbors spend seven months of the long winters in Florida," said Steven Beckwith, the director of the Space Science Laboratory and professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, who was not part of the commentary. "During the winter, the people in the next house over would be closer to you."
But most people would still say that their closest neighbors are the ones who live immediately next door for the rest of the year, Beckwith told Live Science. "It is an interesting way of redefining 'closest,' but it is hardly profound."
www.space.com/closest-planet-earth.html
Yeah Right... "Flawed Assumption" my ass...
Sounds like Tom Stockman wrote this "interpretive" paper, just to get himself a pay raise and to make himself seem important.
This is nothing new... We've always known, that when Venus is orbiting on the other side of the sun, that Mercury could be closer to us at that time...
But, as the article points out, that is NOT how most people will define "Closest"...
And, by the way, "WINTER" has nothing to do with anything... When home owners, live in Florida, are on vacation, have surgery at the Hospital, go camping and fishing for the weekend, go to Work, or shop for groceries....It doesn't change that fact, that we still define neighbors as the residences (land/property) closest to our homes, and not by the people who live in them...
In other words, just because a homemaker, who lives several houses down the street, and never goes anywhere... Doesn't mean that the people, who live next door, who went to work for the day on the other side of town, are no longer considered to be our closest neighbors.
And so, the house/property/land (call it whatever you want), is the ORBIT of Venus. That is next door to us, and doesn't change when Venus is "away" on the other side of the Sun.
In My Opinion, This is just a "False Equivalency" comparison... Because, TIME & DISTANCE are two different terms... "Apples & Oranges"!
