Is it possible for another planet to be in our exact orbit around the sun?

Question

It travels the same speed around the sun with the exact same orbit pattern. As far as we can see, its always behind the sun so we can never see it. The moon isn't far enough away from the earth, neither is the hubble telescope to allow us to see it either. It has a year thats exactly as long, and even has life on it possibly.. of course even if they are intellgent, which most likely they aren't, they can't see us either.

Anyone ever consider that? I was just thinking about someone saying we can see everything well in our solar system so I asked myself, is that true, or is there a blind spot? Well there is.. Anything orbitting around the sun exactly at our speed would always be invisible to us since our telescopes arent far enough away.

I have doubts that the voyager would have been able to spot this though. Its not a telescope as far as I know. What is it even used for anymore?

Answer 1

Sorry to disappoint you but this idea of a counter-earth playing hide and seek with us is a fantasy created by Science Fiction writers. It plainly isn't the case as rockets going near to the Sun can "look round corners" and have reported nothing there,

LAGRANGE POINTS

PIease look at the diagram in the link below as to where the Lagrangian L3 point is in the Earth-Sun system.

Wikipedia comments

"The Sun–Earth L3 point was a popular place to put a "Counter-Earth" in pulp science fiction and comic books - though of course, once space based observation was possible via satellites and probes, it was shown to hold no such object.

In actual fact, Sun–Earth L3 is highly unstable, because the gravitational forces of the other planets outweigh that of the Earth (Venus, for example, comes within 0.3 AU of L3 every 20 months). "

Answer 2

The distance to the Moon is small compared even to Earth's orbital eccentricity. This planet's orbit deviates from its average by about 2 million kilometres each way. If there was a space station placed at the orbit of Venus, it wouldn't be very hot, and parts of the upper Venusian atmosphere is at about the same temperature as the Earth's surface. The difference is that Venus had oceans which made the atmosphere very humid, and the water vapour trapped the heat of the sun, whereas Mars has such a thin atmosphere that it can't hold the heat in much. The processes which lead to the heating or cooling are both very slow and need a much greater distance than that between the Moon and Earth to operate. Also, since the Moon constantly orbits us, there would be a balance between heat and cold there even if the orbit was quite large.

Answer 3

Nope. Remember, our orbit around the sun is NOT a circle, but an ellipse, so there's no possible way that another planet would always be exactly opposite the Earth.

The Earth we live on has accreted all the material in this orbital band, so there isn't enough matter left to make a second planet.

And I'll echo the previous answerers who chimed in with our space exploration -- we've looked at what's on the far side of the sun, and there's no "counter Earth" out there.

This idea is not new -- several movies have been made using this exact concept, except that everything on that other planet would be an exact mirror image of everything on earth. Even their electrical power was 180° out of phase, so when our spacecraft linked up, it was instantly destroyed.

Answer 4

Tham is mistaken about the gravitational pull of "Counter Terra." It would NOT pull the earth into the sun. You could have three masses in an orbit like that, but it would not be stable. The problem is, there are eight planets orbitting our sun. As Counter Terra falls in opposition to Jupiter, Jupiter's gravity would ever so slightly perturb its orbit. The same would happen as the earth swung about the same side, so that the two planets eventually would end up on the same side, and most likely collide. The orbit would not be stable.

We would have been able to detect perturbations in the orbit of Venus by any Counter Terra. No such effects have ever been measured.

The satellites we sent through the solar system were not looking for other planets, they had specific missions. The solar satellites were sent to observe the sun. We would not likely ever have noticed (at least yet) a planet opposite us, through optical satellite observations. However, we WOULD have noticed such a body through its gravitational effects, most particularly on Venus and Mercury, and to a lesser extent on Mars.

(You are right about Voyager and the other spacecraft--it is unlikely they would have spotted even a relativey bright planet like the earth--first they wouldn't be looking. Satellite instrument optical imaging packages are used for targeting stars for trajectory and course corrections, and for specific surveys. All general satellite surveys are conducted in near earth orbit. These would not detect an opposite planet).

If ALL the inner planets had opposites, we would have seen them, as the planets revolve around the sun at different velocities.

Answer 5

It is my understanding that that some planets are not visible with the naked eye and we knew they existed before they were actually discovered, because of their gravitational effect on the orbital path of other planets within our solar system. Therefore astronomers knew where to look for them. If this is true then you would assume that a replica Earth in our ob ital path would also affect Mars and Venus. If so then we would be aware of its existence even if we could not see it.

I recall an old sci-fi movie based upon a mirror reverse Earth where an astronaut returned to the wrong planet. There is a belt of habitation around our sun and our planet is within this belt. Building a deep space colony and parking it in the reverse Earth location, with a velocity matching Earth is possible, but it would be unwise. Any mistake or modification to velocity would result in imminent collision, like two trains on the same track where the front train is too slow. It would make more sense to push the colony farther out from the Sun so we could use it as a stepping stone to Mars and Beyond.

Answer 6

It could happen, but it isn't possible that we wouldn't have noticed it by now. We have sent satellites all over the solar system, and we would have known if the earth had a twin residing in orbit. The possibility of a planet sharing the same orbit? Yes. Does it exist? No. But I do agree that life could exist elsewhere. They say some planets are too hot or cold for life? How do they know that another life form may not be comfortable at such extremes? Maybe another life form may freeze at 250 degrees F.? Or melt at -250 degrees F.? Who knows? Definently not them!

Answer 7

Interesting thoughts but we have sent satellites to the Sun and they have seen nothing unusual on the other side. There have been multiple craft on the opposite side of the sun compared to Earth and have not seen another Earth.

Answer 8

Have you ever read John Norman's novels of GOR? It is a planet just as you speak of 180 degrees rotation away from Earth and always behind the sun.

Answer 9

No, this is not possible. You're assuming that we've only observed from earth, but we've sent satellites through space (such as the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft) which have observed that which is not directly visible to us on earth.

Answer 10

It's possible but not true.
The activity we have had in space exploration would no doubt have detected it
It would also have shown up as anomalies in the orbits of other planets.