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planet had the same kind of crescent-shaped shadow as _ ranged between a quarter and a third of the size of Venus. could be observed on the visible disc of Venus. The Perplexed readers may object, citing the achievements apparent diameter of the planet was roughly a third that of of modern astronomy and the probes already travelling the Venus. Its light was not as bright or clear, but it had farther reaches of the solar system, so let us deal with exceptionally sharp, precise edges due to the fact that it those at once. lay considerably further from the Sun than Venus. A line A very important point that non-specialists are generally passing through the centre of Venus and the planet formed unaware of is that probes flying through space do not an angle of around 18—20° with the equator of Venus. "look out to the sides". In order to maintain and correct Short observed the planet for an hour, but the Sun's light their courses constantly, the "electronic eyes" of space increased and he lost it around 8.15 in the morning. vehicles are directed towards specific heavenly bodies The next observation was made on 20 May 1759 by the _used as landmarks, such as the bright star Canopus. astronomer Andreas Mayer in Greifswald, Germany. The distance from Earth to the Counter-Earth is so great The exceptional "glitch" in the functioning of the solar that, bearing in mind the size of the Sun and the effects it "dynamo" that took place in the produces, a fairly large heavenly late 17th and early to mid-18th . body can be lost in the space centuries (which also manifested The distance from Earth to behind the Sun, remaining itself in a Maunder Minimum, the Counter-Earth is so great invisible for long periods of when there were hardly any . . . time. Take a look at the sunspots for 50 years) caused the that, bearing in mind the size illustration (figure 2) to get the orbital instability of the Counter- picture. Earth. of the Sun and the effects The average distance from the The year 1761 was the year it produces, a fairly large Earth to the Sun is 149,600,000 when the Counter-Earth was seen . kilometres, and the distance from most often. For several days heavenly body can be lost in the Sun to the Counter-Earth is running (10-12 February), 9 the same, since it is on the reports of observations of the the alee behind the Sun... Earth's orbit behind the Sun. planet (a supposed satellite of The diameter of the Sun is Venus) came from Joseph-Louis Lagrange, the famous 1,390,600 km, or 109 Earth diameters (equatorial mathematician, then in Marseille, France. On 3,4,7 and diameter 12,756 km). If we add up the distance from the 11 March, the planet was seen by Jacques Montaigne of Earth to the Sun and the Sun to the Counter-Earth, taking Limoges, France. On 15, 28 and 29 March, Monbarreaux _into account the diameter of the Sun, we get a total of Auxerre, France, also saw in his telescope a heavenly _— distance from Earth to Counter-Earth of 300,590,600 km, body that he considered a "satellite of Venus". Eight — or 23,564.6 times the diameter of the Earth. sightings of this body were made in June, July and August Now let's picture the situation in miniature, taking the by Redner, of Copenhagen, Denmark. Earth to be an object one metre in diameter (i.e., a scale of In 1764, the mysterious planet was seen by Roedkier. 1:12,756,000) and see how the Counter-Earth will look in On 3 January 1768, it was observed by Christian a photograph in comparison to this object. Let's take Horrebow of Copenhagen. The latest observation was another one-metre sphere. If we place the first sphere made on 13 August 1892, when the American astronomer __ (Earth) straight in front of the camera lens, we will need to Edward Emerson Barnard spotted close to Venus (where __ put the other one 23 km 564.6 metres away, according to there were no stars with which the sighting might have __ our calculations. been associated) an unknown object of the seventh stellar Obviously at that distance, the second sphere (Counter- magnitude; then the planet went back behind the Sun. Earth) will be so small in the picture as to be simply The various estimates of the size of the observed body invisible. Irrespective of the definition of the camera and the Counter-Earth is so great that, bearing in mind the size it produces, a fairly large heavenly body can be lost in the space behind the Sun... Anti-Eath: