Assertion

[J.C.Buster]

I have an assertion:

There area planet in our solar system that not have been observed yet. The planet has the same size as earth and has the same orbit around the sun. The reason that it not yet have been observed are because its orbit is a half year after earth and therefore always been covered by the sun.

Is there possible to prove that I’m wrong?

[Kai]

I think it has already been proved !!!

[SteelRat]

That movie has just been re-released (classic)

[Paxo]

From Astronomycafe:

"There is no way that a counter-Earth would remain exactly behind the Sun while being constantly perturbed by the other planets. Eventually it would end up on a slightly different orbit by a few miles, and the synchrony would vanish. It would slowly slide out from behind the Sun and would have been observed over the millennia as a new planet."

Steve

[MikeP]

Planetary orbits are elliptical, not by much, but nevertheless not circular.

Mike

[SteelRat]

Confirmation just in;

...am informed a widescreen edition of Jerry Anderson's 'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun' has indeed been avertised in print this month

[legion48]

I have an assertion:

There area planet in our solar system that not have been observed yet. The planet has the same size as earth and has the same orbit around the sun. The reason that it not yet have been observed are because its orbit is a half year after earth and therefore always been covered by the sun.

Is there possible to prove that I’m wrong?

It's tough to prove a negative.

[SteelRat]

It's tough to prove a negative.

Oooooh 8)

[Astronut]

It's highly unlikely that 2 planets would share the same orbit. If there were one sharing Earth's orbit we'd have detected it (or its influence) either directly or indirectly.

If there were a planet (lets call it 'Earth2') sharing the exact same orbit as Earth on the other side there's a chance we'd have probably seen it from Earth because both planets and the Sun wouldn't always be in conjunction ie. in a straight line.

Orbits aren't circular, they're elliptical so when Earth is at aphelion (furthest point from the Sun - about 95 million miles) it would be moving slower than Earth2 (at perihelion) so Earth2 would be seen east of the Sun. Conversely, when Earth is at perihelion (the fastest and closest part of the orbit - distance from the Sun about 91 million miles), Earth2 would be at aphelion and we'd see it to the west of the Sun.

[acey]

This idea has a long pedigree - Pythagoras and his followers believed in a "counter-Earth" which could never be seen. But its presence would reveal itself through gravitational perturbation of other objects in the solar system, so if we want to cling to the idea of its existence then we also need to suppose that it has zero mass (and is therefore held in orbit by supernatural influence). So I think we can consider it disproved - certainly more firmly than unicorns or mermaids, neither of which contravene physics. But hey, it's a nice idea.

Andrew

[J.C.Buster]

I don't believe that theory myselfe, but is it done any research that I can read about?

[Sam]

If Earth2 was populated by a species called Human2 then we would have heard them by now.

[narrowbandpaul]

i dont think the 3 body system of the sun earth and earth 2 would be stable. the orbit would get perturbed fairly fast and the planet seen