The two inner planets, Mercury and Venus, do not exhibit retrograde motion due to their faster motion than Earth. Our planet never passes either of them, but some astronomers define retrograde motion as any westward motion by a planet. This phenomenon is observed when the projection of a planet is compared to the star background. There are no real changes in the planetary orbits, but when for example, the Earth catches up with Mars, it appears to move “backwards” or retrograde across Earth’s sky.
Apparent retrograde motion is the apparent motion of a planet in a direction opposite to that of other. This is because at opposition, the planet appears from Earth to be moving in the retrograde direction. In Equation 8.4.1, p is the proper motion to the west, in units of ω0 = 147.8 arcseconds per.
Mercury and Venus orbit the Sun on paths inside the Earth’s orbit. They never go “backwards” in their orbits, but sometimes a planet appears to move backwards in its orbit. This is an illusion created by our viewpoint here on Earth. It’s created by the different speeds at which the planet and Earth move.
Both Mercury and Venus undergo retrograde motion, but they are visually close to the Sun when this happens, so we don’t notice it. Inner planets (i.e., those with orbits smaller than Earth’s) can also undergo retrograde motion as they overtake and pass by the Earth. This backwards movement, retrograde, is actually an illusion created by our viewpoint here on Earth.
📹 Apparent Retrograde Motion (Visual Explanation)
Short Video Series (SVS-0021) Apparent Retrograde Motion (Visual Explanation) Our FB Page: …
Can interior planets be in retrograde?
Mercury and Venus do not exhibit retrograde motion due to their faster orbital velocity relative to that of Earth. Nevertheless, some astronomers define retrograde motion as any westward motion by a planet, irrespective of whether the planet is moving away from or towards the Sun. This definition encompasses instances where a planet is visible in the eastern morning sky or western evening sky. Our planet never passes in front of either of them.
Can Saturn be in retrograde?
Saturn, the “greater malefactor” in astrology, is a karmic celestial being that teaches life lessons. It is austere, rigid, responsible, and resilient. In 2024, Saturn’s retrograde will run from June 29 to November 15 in the water sign of Pisces. This astrological transit will heavily impact Earth, urging extreme decisions that will impact the future. Last year’s retrograde focused on defining freedom and autonomy, and it coincided with Venus retrograde, leading to breakups and relationship shake-ups. The 2024 Saturnian moonwalk will urge commitment to passion, bossing up, and being honest about goals. Emotionally, it urges devoted affection to those at our level and wise use of time with others.
Saturn’s planetary backspin offers opportunities for healing family and generational trauma from youth or adolescence. It offers the chance to understand our strength, move forward, mend wounds through self-care, and break the cycle. Inner-child work can be beneficial during this time, as it allows us to love the parts of ourselves we’ve ignored and let go of the past.
What would happen if Earth went into retrograde?
A retrograde rotation is expected to result in reversals of zonal wind and ocean circulation patterns, leading to significant changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. This is supported by various studies, including those by Andrews, Gregory, Webb, Archer, Eby, Brovkin, Ridgwell, Cao, Mikolajewicz, Caldeira, Matsumoto, Munhoven, Montenegro, and Tokos. Additionally, studies by Bathiany, Claussen, Brovkin, Raddatz, and Gayler have explored the combined biogeophysical and biogeochemical effects of large-scale forest cover changes in the MPI earth system model.
Will retrograde motion happen to Earth?
Copernicus correctly explained that all planets, including Earth, move around the Sun in the same direction. The phenomenon of retrograde motion, which is often observed in the movement of other planets from Earth, as well as asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects, is an illusion created by the relative positioning of these celestial bodies in relation to Earth.
Which planets undergo retrograde motion?
Retrograde motion refers to the motion of a body in a direction opposite to the direct motions of most members of the solar system or other astronomical systems. Major planets revolve counterclockwise around the Sun, while Venus and Uranus rotate counterclockwise on their own axes. A minority of known satellites display retrograde revolution, including Jupiter’s four outermost moons, Saturn’s Phoebe, and Neptune’s Triton. Uranus’ satellites’ orbital planes are tilted so greatly that their motion is either retrograde or direct.
All known asteroids’ revolutions around the Sun are direct, and only a few periodic comets, such as Halley’s Comet, move in a retrograde orbit. A separate sense of retrograde motion refers to the apparent brief reversal of a planet’s motion as seen from Earth, depending on the difference in orbital speeds of the planets.
Can Venus be in retrograde?
Venus retrograde is a rare celestial event that occurs once every 1. The occurrence of Venus retrograde over a five-year period has been demonstrated to exert a profound influence on the dynamics of love, relationships, and the personal lives of individuals. The extent of this impact is difficult to overstate, given its significant bearing on the course of our lives.
What if Earth had a retrograde orbit?
Earth’s rotation in the opposite direction would result in significant changes in atmospheric and ocean currents, leading to a drastic climate change. Deserts in Africa and Eurasia would disappear, with the Amazon basin becoming an arid wasteland, the Russian steppes being balmy, and northwestern Europe experiencing harsh winters. The Atlantic sea ice would have a greater southern extent. Despite being survivable, individuals might not recognize their specific spot on the planet.
The thought experiment explores the consequences of all volcanoes on Earth erupting at once, the reasons why Earth’s core doesn’t melt the planet, and the potential changes in our Solar System if Jupiter were a star.
Can planets interior to Earth’s orbit around the sun appear to undergo retrograde motion in the Copernican system?
Planets do not always move in the same direction along the ecliptic, unlike the Sun. This retrograde motion was a puzzle to ancient astronomers, but Copernicus explained it as an illusion created when we observe other planets from Earth’s perspective. Mercury and Venus are the easiest to understand, as they are closer to the Sun and orbit the Sun faster than we do. The Sun moves slowly along the ecliptic, while Mercury and Venus run rings around the Sun.
For Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, the explanation is more subtle. These outer planets are further from the Sun than we are and orbit the Sun more slowly. When the Earth passes between one of these planets and the Sun, we see it going backwards because we’re moving faster than it is. When the Earth passes between one of the outer planets and the Sun, we see the Sun and the planet in opposite parts of the sky, with the planet rising and remaining visible all night. Opposition is a good time to observe an outer planet, as it’s visible all night and relatively close to Earth.
Which never goes in retrograde motion?
In this frame of reference, the Sun’s initial stationary state precludes retrograde motion.
Can a planet have a retrograde orbit?
The Solar System consists of eight planets orbiting the Sun in the direction of the Sun’s rotation, which is counterclockwise. Six of these planets rotate about their axis in this same direction, except for Venus and Uranus. Venus has an axial tilt of 177°, rotating almost exactly in the opposite direction to its orbit. Uranus has an axial tilt of 97. 77°, with its axis of rotation approximately parallel with the Solar System’s plane. The reason for Uranus’ unusual axial tilt is unknown, but it is believed to have been caused by a collision with an Earth-sized protoplanet during the formation of the Solar System.
Venus is unlikely to have formed with its slow retrograde rotation, which takes 243 days. It likely began with a fast prograde rotation with a period of several hours, due to its proximity to the Sun and thick atmosphere. Venus’s slow retrograde rotation balances between gravitational tides trying to tidally lock it to the Sun and atmospheric tides trying to spin it in a retrograde direction. Alternative hypotheses have been proposed to explain Venus’s retrograde rotation, such as collisions or its original formation.
Is it possible to have a planetary orbit without retrograde motion?
Ptolemy’s model postulates that planetary orbit necessitates retrograde motion, which is pivotal for elucidating observed planetary movements, as it is not feasible without it.
📹 Mercury retrograde, explained WITHOUT astrology
The science buried under the pseudoscience. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Sources: Mars photography by Tunç …
For those who still struggle to really get a grasp on it (no worries, I’ve taken a bunch of astronomy classes and I get it but I still have problems visualizing it) it’s best to think of it like something you’ve already seen: that unsettling feeling of a car, truck, or train seemingly moving backwards. When you stare out of a side window of a moving vehicle at a fixed point it can seem like other vehicles around you are moving backwards, even though everyone’s going in the same forward direction; it’s just a result of you moving faster. Same effect as retrograde motion.
If you want to understand the universe think in terms of energy frequency and vibration – Tesla. While I do agree the mercury retrograde is observable fact you shouldn’t discount the effects of mercury on earth. Astrologists are not wrong for claiming that mercury in retrograde does cause some “chaos” due to the shifts in energy. Until we can measure this you shouldn’t rule out astrology. Astrology and astronomy should unite again
Thank you for explaining this so well! About 10-15 minutes ago I saw a post on Facebook by a friend who was having one of those days where when it rains, it pours, and someone blamed her problems on Mercury in retrograde, which made me sick. Even though I have been an amateur astronomer for many years, I still had a tough time understanding Mercury in retrograde, I thought it would just go in a straight line because it is closer to the Sun. So I had to look it up.
“We may be vulnerable to illusions when we think everything revolves around us.”– This may be true if we perceive the archetypal narratives of astrology as irrefutable truth (in the way that science is considered irrefutable truth), but really astrology weaves together metaphors that serve to help us realize the power we each have to improve our lives through healing and self-mastery. Astrology is observed in relation to us as it provides metaphors to our own experience– it’s the science of understanding how we overcome obstacles and thrive within the confines and potential of our experience so everyone can live their best life. Truly it is a different field of study from the physicality of the universe that science studies.
People who are ignorant enough to believe in astrology, probably will not care about any kind of real scientific explanation, no matter how true it is. You almost always can never successfully negotiate truth with people in the midst of their delusional personal psychological pathologies. Some people are more open minded then most though and allow themselves the logical ability to question their own superstious and uniformed assumptions. I hope more people on this planet learn what it means to implement practical skepticism and logic towards everything on the basis of provable hard evidance. I hope for sake of this beautiful planet and it’s fellow inhabitants. You can ignore reality but you cannot avoid it.
I like this article too. It explains the physical movements of the planets very well and why Mercury appears to move differently in relation to the earth three times a year. However, it does not take into account that all the planets in the solar system have a direct effect on earth in terms of gravitational pull at different times. This should be considered, as the human body is mostly made of water and we see what a huge effect the moon has on our tides. What I am saying is, maybe we don’t know everything about the subtler energies of life and how certain planets may influence those energies at different times of the year.
I love this, I’m glad that this information is out there. To be fair to astrology however, it’s not about “spilling your coffee” or things like that. When certain planets are out of tune, they have the chance of disrupting certain patterns of human life; which can vary from person to person. Much of astrology has been taken out of context because people go a little over the top with it but most astrologers would agree that is not the notion. One thing about space is that we are already there which would also theoretically mean that we are one with it. If the moon effects the oceans and lakes with heavy tides and the human body makes up of 60% water, wouldn’t that mean it would have the slightest bit of an effect on us to a degree? Alexander Chizhevsky also did a study which correlated high political and social events from 1749 to 1926 with high solar activity. Of course, what I’m saying here isn’t a defined science but to call it an illusion wouldn’t be entirely fair either.
You are a tiny dot that lives on the third closest planets that are famously known around a sun that exists in a system. The system is only a speck of the large quantity of stars, thousands of times bigger than the sun that orbit around a galaxy we call the Milky way. The milky way is only a dot surrounded by bilions of galaxies that move away where at some point (we talking about millions of years here), our nightsky would never be covered by the millions of flickering lights that gives our eyes another reason to love and care for our world. We are small, helpless and alone in this universe. Let’s cherish our irrelevance.
By perusal this article, which very well explained, I found it unpleasant to reduce the weight of Astrology. In the first place it is not because Mercury is retrograde that it will cause a coffee mug to fall, that is the stupidest thing that exists. What is in fact notorious is that, in times of retrogradation of a planet, what it means astrologically, changes negatively. People have not yet understood that Astrology is seen in its empirical form and that its knowledge is based on the movements of the planets and what happens on Earth. Just as someone becomes more depressed because their life has complicated or slowed down in a certain way. But it became more joyful, when it came to a certain understanding and natural harmony. By the way, Claudius Ptolemaeus is a God in Astrological Matter.
Just like to point out that there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with taking the Earth as the center of the solar system. It makes the math horrendously more complicated since ellipses are significantly easier to work with than the crazy epitrochoids Ptolemy came up with, but from a physical perspective its just a change of reference frame which is a perfectly valid thing to do.
the ironic thing is that ppl who are into astrology are more likely to have already known the mechanics of the illusion of the retrograde than ppl who aren’t into it lol. ALSO would also be interesting 2 see a sociocultural take on the rise of popularity of astrology instead of outright dismissal! call me a bystander who’s bored by outright dismissal based on wrong metrics of judgement. what makes astrology interesting 2 think about is less about its scientific accuracy than its symbols as in any intuitive practice
Astrology is not about “the universe revolving around someone” it’s about all of our own individual places in the universe and is a creative system to help us improve ourselves. People who decided it wasnt for them are mostly people who didn’t think that they needed to grow and learn anymore in the way astrology teaches. If you want to truly understand astrology you have to fully immerse yourself in it and learn about every aspect of it. Not just your sun sign..
I feel like this article could’ve stood on its own feet without being passive aggressive. It’s an interesting concept on its own but using at an opportunity to dunk on people with different beliefs just feels childish to me. I like learning about how to planets move and astronomy, and this article generalizing something they don’t understand down to “her der coffee on clothes” takes away from the interesting scientific concepts presented.
All of those “Creative interpretations” ARE based on the illusion of Mercury making the loop. And I don’t know how thick-sculled you have to be to not notice how different technology and our minds work during Merc. Ret. Things do break down and get delayed. And avoiding signing contracts during those 3 weeks is smart.
Its cute how scientists like to pick the lowest hanging fruit when they criticize astrology. As a scientist and a professional astrologer, I find that kind of annoying. I also know that Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, pretty much every great Greek mind, Brahmagupta (the guy who came up with the number zero), and every other great Indian mind has all had to deal with people criticizing things before they investigated them as well…Its just a part of humans and our egos to reject things that dont support our preconceived concepts of how life works. With that said, yes Mercury retrograde has become embellished due to pop culture, but that also happens with all kinds of scientific things, look at health fads as an example… studies say chocolate will make you lose weight faster and people just rush off to buy chocolate, lol. PS:::: one can explain this way easier by explaining how if you have ever driven by a slower car or train as you drive by it, it appears to be moving backwards. Thats all it is. We know it isnt going backwards, and Newton knew this too, as well as Varahamirhira. If one read their books instead of just criticizing them, one would already know this. One would also already know that Varahamiria predicted the presence of iron and water on the surface of Mars many centuries ago, along with lots of other fun things that science just now figured out.
So basically Apparent Retrograde Motion is when planets appear to change directional orbit but they’re not, simply an illusion visible from earth over the course of weeks and months. The illusion happens when mercury laps earth every 4 months or when earth laps mars every 2 years. Sunset and sunrise is when Mercury is visible because it’s located on the interior “day side” of orbit. So for about three weeks mercury appears to loop back on itself when viewed from earth which is a function of two objects orbiting in the same direction at different speeds. Retrograde = moving backwards, prograde = moving in the consistent forward motion.
Excellent article, although you take your assumption too far. We indeed are vulnerable to illusions but that vulnerability isn’t due to our perception–which we are necessarily fundamental and central to ourselves–but to our penchant for accepting an account ‘of’ reality in place of, reality itself. Early observers started out with an assumption they sought to prove. A scientific hypothesis, one that was later replaced by a better one more inline with reality. Both aren’t reality, but descriptions of it.
I’m trying to make a fantasy world where various planets, known as the seven wandering stars, are the namesakes of spells. One in specific is known as the spiraling star, which is in retrograde pretty much as much as physically possible. I’m thinking about making it either extremely slow and just outside of the world relative to the sun, so that it retrogrades once every year(ish), or incredibly fast and very close to the Sun so that it’s retrograde every couple of weeks
Cool. I also like to think of it in terms of a cycling analogy. When cyclists have a race inside the velodrome. One is on the inner shorter route or orbit if you will. One is on the outside which is longer. All you need is a change of speed between the 2 to have differing perspectives which from different angles could lead to the appearance of the race being closer or not then it actually is
I’m delighted to have found this article as it clarified my confusion about mercury retrograde. The highlight for me was the conclusion, where you presented an illustration of Ptolemy’s concept of retrograde, only to have it debunked by a more insightful explanation of the entire process. This demonstrates that science is malleable, akin to putty, allowing you to mold it based on your initial understanding, only to have it reconfigured later by a more comprehensive insight.
It’s not fair to have supermodel looks and be uber intelligent, why so much for one person, i mean come on, share it out a bit please, i am as thick as you know, i am sitting on my couch looking at my bare legs and WOW, are they in bad shape, my contribution to the world will consist of me eating more than my fair share of sugary treats, that’s it folks, nothing, life isn’t fair, maybe i was put here to help nature absorb plastic, i have had a lot of M&M’s over the years, so if i cut out plastic altogether i will have been born for nothing, that can’t be right, can it.
Your explanation though correct was little complicated. With the analogy of a car passing another car where, ‘retrograde motion of outer planets is, as if we’re in a car on the highway. You know how, when you’re riding in a fast car on the highway, and you pass a slower car, the slower car can appear to move backwards for a time against the distant landscape? Retrograde motion is exactly like that. The outer planets don’t really change their motion. They’re moving along in orbit like always. But they do APPEAR to move backwards, as our faster Earth moves between them and the sun, against the distant starscape.’, it could be explained quicker and with better visual analogy, than geometry. link here : earthsky.org/space/what-is-retrograde-motion Also, I wouldn’t really call it astronomical phenomenon, its just an illusion.
She imported each file individually to after effects and then manually cropped its time duration…. when she could’ve simply imported the footage as an image sequence and then adjust the playback speed. 😒😞why couldn’t the editor of this article help her out on that?! it could’ve avoided her so much painstaking cropping 😆😂
When mercury is in retrograde, it is physically closer to earth, meaning that there is a larger gravitational force of it’s mass (being closer to the sun) and our mass on earth. This has an affect on the solar emissions and flares that occur within our direction. When solar emissions occur, they have the ability to creat solar storms that affect the EMF of earth that is directly related to our communication systems.
The author made 1 hour project for article and done for her . Terrible if I didn’t see better showcase. Sorry for attacking you and your article . The woman in article sound like zombie to me, no elan vital . It is well spoken in a sense to use reasoning but making money through usage of reasoning isn’t life at its finest. The woman is actually in hidden sense attacking people who interprets because she doesn’t want to see herself doing interpretations to people ?
May be if we used our Sun’s rotation to establish time we wouldn’t have so much trouble understanding theses phenomena. You would think couldn’t really matter, and maybe this particular situation does not. A little over two years ago I thought the little things did not really matter until I got schooled.
That’s interesting. But did you know that Earth’s tidal forces are what’s causing the moon to drift farther and farther away from the Earth with each passing year, and for the Earth’s rotation to slow down with each passing year? Yes, due to tides of our oceans, our days are getting longer and the moon is drifting farther and farther away from us. I’d like to see VOX illustrate why that is happening.
*Drawing is never not too scale. Otherwise, any planetary system (including our solar system) will never fit into a piece of paper, or planets will be way too small to see, or the sun will be way too big compared to the planets, or the distance between planets will be way too long. There is never a good solution to this scale problem.*
I miss these types of articles. After the Trump administration came along we seemed to have had more articles about politics than science. Which is also not to say that politics is not important but it means we learn a little less about the other stuff and focus on the unnecessary things that we have no control over like how CNN treats politics like sports commentary
Vox: Best explanation of retrograde I’ve heard! Bravo! But I see I was a year late perusal this. I like your presenter too. There’s too much of a trend toward presenters being Barbie Dolls reading cue cards. This gal looks you in the eye and you KNOW she’s bright and familiar with the subject. And she’s still easy on the eyes.
As to Mercury’s movements, someone named ‘Einstein’ had a pretty good grasp of it. The gravitational lock on the orbit wherein Mercury maintains the same face to the Sun is simple physics. As to astrology, I sincerely doubt any of it…but if you are scientifically-minded, ironically, you must hold out a tiny chance that it’s real. Makes no sense to me at all, but the position of stars or planets might matter…heaven knows why. Haldane said: the universe is not only stranger than we imagine; it’s stranger than we can imagine…
Copernicus system was more complicated than Ptolemy’s system, though. With way more deferents, or what you call “loops”. Copernicus only made the Sun inside the orbits off all the planets (not even really in center of them). It was way later, when Kepler got rid of the deferents and loops due to observing the orbits are elipses, not circles. Just because a picture shows “Copernicus system” with only only one circle per planet, doesn’t mean it’s the actual system. Just a simplified visual representation. Nobody wanted to draw the perfect shapes of dozens of those loops in every hand-drawn picture (even for printing thye still had to be etched on metal plates).
Yes, @EthanDee, hats off to Gina Barton for her ingenuity in coming up with tangible ways to explain complex scientific principles — your description is perfect: “Your visuals team is excellent, the narrators pleasant, and the message concise yet detailed.” That’s not easy to do. Concise is about 100x more difficult to achieve than “thorough explanation”. It takes “generalist” sensibilities to do concise well.
I’ve never left a comment on a article before, so I want you to understand how important this is to me… as a YouTube connoisseur I am giving feedback that I hope you take. If you would’ve taken 30 more pictures and made the circles bigger, your experiment / model figure would’ve made so much better!!! @2:09
Mercury is very difficult to spot, hovering so close to the horizon when it’s even possible to view. I’m impressed that early astronomers were able to catch sight and track it at all. Apparently, they had to find optimal viewing sites even once they began working with telescopes and lenses. Their record-keeping must have been meticulous as well. Less light pollution would have also helped. People also get excited about eclipses, and the math for them is also very interesting. Thanks for this resource.