I produced this diagram to show the wave function of the solar system. Data is here. It shows the distance from the sun to the solar system centre of mass over 6000 years, as calculated by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The method of depiction was first used by Carl Smith.

Each line provides 179 years of data. The bottom line is the calculated position of the sun from 3000 BC, and the top line is 179 years of data to 3000 AD. Each successive line is slightly different, but there is considerable change over the 6000 years shown.

The driver of this pattern is the regular orbital pattern of the planets. The solar system centre of mass, also called the Solar System Barycentre (SSB), is the point at which a scale model of the whole system would balance. As Isaac Newton calculated, Jupiter and Saturn, as the biggest planets, are the main drivers of the position of this SSB point with respect to the sun.

When Jupiter is opposite Saturn, the SSB is near the centre of the sun. When Jupiter is conjunct Saturn, the SSB is outside the sun by up to one solar radius. The Jupiter-Saturn cycle takes nearly 20 years, so this main pattern is seen in the 179 year wave nine times, visible in the diagram. The next biggest influence, unknown to Newton, is surprisingly not Uranus but Neptune. These two gas giants are the same size, but it is like Neptune sits further out on the see-saw than Uranus, so Neptune pulls the SSB further toward it. Uranus only has a small influence, while the small rocky planets including earth have no visible impact.

Every 178.9 years, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune form a triple conjunction exactly 30 degrees of arc further on from their previous conjunction. The diagram below shows this data as a clock pattern over the Age of Pisces. After twelve conjunctions in a family, the gas giants are back to their previous position, but slightly scattered. The next wide conjunction is in the 2020s, and the next close conjunction is in a new family, at 2061. This 'scattering' of the JSN cycle is seen in the diagram above as the difference in shape between lines twelve rows apart.

This SSB function integrates all the matter in the solar system. The SSB forms the arc of the solar system orbit around the galaxy.

My interesting discovery from this material is that the SSB wave period is precisely one twelfth of a zodiac age. The earth sits within the solar system as a cocoon, and wobbles with a spin wobble period of 25765 years, producing the precession of the equinox. In exactly the time it takes for the equinox to precess by one sign, a zodiac age, the SSB wave function goes through twelve cycles.

I consider that this regular pattern in our cosmic environment may constitute a resonance between the spin wobble of the earth and the overall wave function of the solar system, producing the 2147 year zodiac age as a real dynamic regular physical cyclic period of the earth.

I conducted a spectral analysis of the distance from the sun to the center of mass, producing clear spectral peaks in the Fourier Transform as predicted, shown also in the spreadsheet linked above.

This topic has been an interest of mine for several years, and I have discussed it in various threads at Booktalk and at Cosmoquest (Bautforum). My interest in the link to zodiac ages seems to lead scientists to see it as an unwelcome area of research. I further speculate on these links at a paper exploring how the symbolism of the Great Year can relate to this astrophysical basis.

Here is a solar system planet clock. This diagram is purely empirical and has no speculative content.
It illustrates that the wide JSN triple conjunction of 2201 AD will be in the same part of the sky as the triple conjunction in 53 AD. These events are part of a family which was most exact in 769 AD, shown at the 4 o'clock arm of the planet clock.

Okay, You've got my attention.
But what does this all mean to humanity, actually?

I understand the principle of our solar system's barycenter (SSB) which is the balancing point or center of gravity of all the planets as they collectively rotate around the sun. So it's a sort of a wobble, right?

And I understand the shift of the zodiac or precession of the equinox. The precession is a real thing, but its significance in astrological terms seems rather dubious.

If I understand you correctly, this shifting barycenter or SSB wave period is precisely one twelfth of a zodiac age. Not sure what that means or why it matters.

If there is some synchronization between the SSB and the precession of the equinox, I would speculate that this might be a consequence of the fact that all matter of the Milky Way is rotating and, over billions of years, it has synchronized—just as the moon's rotational period of the Moon now precisely matches its orbit around earth (so that we always see the same side). Then again, I don't think think I quite understand what's going on.

By the way, the "Data is here" link doesn't work.

Edit: No, never mind. The link does work; it downloads an Excel document.

If there is some synchronization between the SSB and the precession of the equinox, I would speculate that this might be a consequence of the fact that all matter of the Milky Way is rotating and, over billions of years, it has synchronized—just as the moon's rotational period of the Moon now precisely matches its orbit around earth (so that we always see the same side). Then again, I don't think think I quite understand what's going on.

The correlations and patterns are great. I don't think they "mean" anything, but are a consequence of our mathematical universe. That picture is fantastic BTW Robert, great work. It's fascinating stuff.

ant wrote:Okay, You've got my attention.
But what does this all mean to humanity, actually?

Hi ant, thanks for the question. My view on what this means is that we live in a solar system that has a real, regular detectable temporal structure that has not previously been understood.

The solar system is our evolutionary niche, providing what we could call a cocoon for the earth. The temporal structure of the SSB, shown in this wave function, has been completely stable since the late heavy bombardment nearly four billion years ago, when it seems Neptune migrated out to its current position and the planetary orbits stabilised. This clockwork stability can be measured and described, and that is what I am doing here. There are a lot more intriguing facts and suppositions about this material that we could explore.

We consider the day and the year to be units of time with significant cultural and practical meaning. This work on the SSB sets these temporal units within a longer real time horizon. I do not have strong evidence of any effect on earth of this temporal structure, although there are some tantalizing hints. As I mentioned where I raised this here, I have explored some speculative lines of enquiry about real effects on earth. However, the speculative nature of these topics means that they should be considered more in the realm of poetry than science. I prefer to be conservative about ‘what this all means’. What can be said with confidence is that the old cultural myth of zodiac ages has a plausible real physical basis in a 2147 year structure of terrestrial time, with our spin wobble reinforced by the overall solar system pattern.

The picture I constructed is an excel chart using NASA data. It condenses everything that has happened in our solar system over the six thousand years of human history up to a thousand years in the future. It shows that from a solar system scale, the earth is simply too small to have any noticeable effect. So this is a meaning, that we can produce an accurate measurable description of time on a single page that includes all of recorded human history as an inconsequential bit part.

I also like how the gradual change in the wave function is similar to a landscape painting with mountains and valleys, especially an Australian Aboriginal perception of landscape, although I deliberately used the rainbow colours which are quite different from the terrestrial environmental colours of landscape.

It is possible to analyse each line and work out why it goes up and down as it does. For example the positions of the gas giants over the last century are the physical cause for the shape of the line sixth from the top. The deep valley at the top right of the picture is a successive series of Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions opposite Jupiter, as happened in 1989, when the SSB was at the heart of the sun.

geo wrote:I understand the principle of our solar system's barycenter (SSB) which is the balancing point or center of gravity of all the planets as they collectively rotate around the sun. So it's a sort of a wobble, right?

The wobble of the sun is what is described. The sun is belting along through space towards Hercules at 12 miles per second, but it does not move in a smooth arc. It is the SSB that moves in a smooth arc, with the sun pirouetting around it, repeating the same dance steps every 179 years as shown in this diagram.

geo wrote: And I understand the shift of the zodiac or precession of the equinox. The precession is a real thing, but its significance in astrological terms seems rather dubious.

All astrology is dubious. While I quite like looking at planetary transits as a psychological almanac, when scientists have tried to test astrology statistically they have come up with next to nothing. If the planets and sun signs have any effects on us they are sub-statistical, although we should not give up on the possibility that more sensitive tests will be devised.

What is valuable regarding zodiac ages is the fact that astrology was a major part of ancient culture, and the age provides a significant hidden element of Christian symbols. Christians find this embarrassing, reminding them of witchcraft, so this whole theme of natural theology has been hidden by silence and suppression. But precession is the big real story of time, and was understood as such in the ancient world.

It makes complete sense to explore the story of Jesus as an earthly image of what the inventors of the Christ Myth could actually see in the sky. This is a coherent explanation that requires no assumption about magical forces, although it helps to explain how the ancients believed in such forces.

I think of our planetary culture as on the cusp of a paradigm shift, from an Age of Belief to an Age of Knowledge, with scientific knowledge sitting like a baby in the womb just about to be born. This matches to the astrological motif of the shift from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius but that may be just coincidence. It certainly is not caused by the stars, although the planetary spin wobble may have something to do with it.

geo wrote: If I understand you correctly, this shifting barycenter or SSB wave period is precisely one twelfth of a zodiac age. Not sure what that means or why it matters.

It shows how the number twelve is embedded in our cosmic environment. This pattern of 1:12:144 is seen in the orbital ratios Moon : Earth : Jupiter = SSB : Age : Spin Wobble ~= 144 : 12 : 1. The Zodiac Age is to me an interesting period of history, which we can imagine in terms of us currently reaching the same stage in terms of the American Republic and Empire as the Roman Republic and Empire reached 2147 years ago. But you are welcome to consider that as just imaginative fantasy.

The planet clock at the bottom of the opening post illustrates how over the period of an age the gas giant planets Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune mark the hours of the age with their triple conjunctions. An interesting book Astrological Timing by the famous astrologer Dane Rudhyar explored this 180 year period in terms of what he termed ‘houses of the age’ but without any knowledge that these ‘houses’ are actually precisely marked by the SSB and the gas giants, or that an age is actually 2147 years and not 2160 years long.

I think of these ‘houses’ as starting at the year zero. This means we entered the twelfth house of the Age of Pisces in May 1968 when postmodern history conventionally began with the soixante-huiters, the eleventh house on 14 July 1789 when modern history conventionally began with the storming of the Bastille, and the tenth house in 1610 when Galileo overturned geocentrism by turning his telescope to the sky and revolutionised science by discovering the moons of Jupiter. Again, that house story is more poetry than physics, but at least it is coherent historical poetry grounded in real astronomy.

geo wrote: If there is some synchronization between the SSB and the precession of the equinox, I would speculate that this might be a consequence of the fact that all matter of the Milky Way is rotating and, over billions of years, it has synchronized—just as the rotational period of the Moon now precisely matches its orbit around earth (so that we always see the same side). Then again, I don't think I quite understand what's going on.

Your point about synchronization is just what I am talking about, but at solar system not galactical scale. I find this material helpful to illustrate relative orders of magnitude. This wave function describes our solar system out to Neptune. If this twelve billion kilometre disk was the size of a coin, our Milky Way Galaxy would be the size of the continental USA, and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, would be a hundred yards away.

Our solar system is as isolated as a coin on an empty sport oval. So every thing in this system can be seen as self contained, and not influenced at all by anything else in the galaxy.

As I mentioned before, our solar system stabilised about four billion years ago. It seems this was due to the unstable 1:2 resonance of Jupiter and Saturn expelling Neptune past Uranus. When Neptune reached its current stable orbit, my speculation is that this was gravitationally linked to the earth moon system also stabilising and producing a spin wobble period regulated by the overall solar system.

The spin wobble is fully explained by Newtonian dynamics, with the torque of the sun and moon acting on the ‘spare tire’ around earth’s equator. However, it may be that the lunar distance itself is somehow regulated or synchronised by the overall shape of the solar system in a resonant way. I have raised this regulation theory with scientists who were highly sceptical. I have no way of confirming or testing it, so just consider the resonance claim as a plausible unconfirmed hypothesis.

What remains an interesting fact is that our twelve based clock closely mirrors this massive slow pattern of our entire solar system, which is quite close to having a sixty based structure.