Thursday, August 17, 2006

number of planets

aug 16th, 2006

and then there were... 9.

pluto is being 'demoted' to a non-planet, i hear.

i was struck by the fact that hindus have always talked about the nava-grhas, the nine planets including the sun, the moon, and the quasi-planets rahu and ketu. is it possible that indian astronomers created the quasi-planets 'rahu' and 'ketu' as mathematical functions to account for the discrepancies in the orbits of the then known planets (up to jupiter and saturn) -- which in fact were caused by the hitherto unknown uranus and neptune? any paleo-astronomers reading this blog?

2 comments:

lost in thoughts said...

Found this link on the web that explains the importance of Rahu-Ketu in Vedic Astrology.

http://www.planetarypositions.com/notes/2005/08/rahuketu-and-eclipses.html

Good explanation.

Here are some of the vedic astrology sites I follow :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sohamsa/messages

http://www.vedicastrologer.org/

Kshitij Sharma said...

The right link for the Rahu Ketu article is http://www.planetarypositions.com/astronomy/2005/08/12/rahuketu-and-eclipses/. It changed over a period of time.

Rahu/Ketu are not discrepancies in orbits of Sa/Ju. They are mathematical points denoting intersection of orbits of Moon around Earth and Earth around Sun. It is therefore a testament to knowledge of ancient Indians that they were aware of heliocentric nature of Earth's orbit and that the Moon is a satellite of earth.