The Natural Sun
Announcements about our sun and its natural conditions
- Chapter 53 -
The seventh pair of belts corresponding to the formerly unknown planet Neptune (Miron)
Since the seventh equatorial belt that we are about to visit corresponds to a planet not known to you yet, it shall once again be necessary to pay a small visit to the planet in order to form a concept of this equatorial belt, because without such familiarisation with the planet, the solar equator would lack correspondence and secondly the solar belt could not be so thoroughly examined and recognised if the corresponding planet were not first viewed and recognised to some degree.
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Hence we can justifiably tum to the planet at once. To get a grip on it in its planetary constellation however, we shall first have to name it. As you have not given this planet a name yet, what name shall we call it? You would say this does not matter as long as it has one, since one will think of it the same way always.
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Basically you would be right, but if you remember that the name of a thing is not as irrelevant as some would think, then it will be to this purpose that we give it not a title of honour, but a real name. Where shall we find this name? Not upon Earth for sure, for the latter knows nothing of it yet. From the corresponding solar equator? This we don't know yet. Hence it will be best to give it the name its inhabitants have given it. And you will say again: but we don't know them either; but I say: although you don't know them, yet, I know very well what they call their planet. Now lets have it, what is it called? "Miron, signifying world of wonders" - that is its name.
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Behold, from this name the first concept emerges already and it says with one word what this planet is about. What follows will justify it even more, and so we can proceed to the first aspects of the planet Miron.
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What is its distance from the sun? Something over a thousand million (GM) miles at its greatest distance. And how big is it? It is by size what amounts to intermediate size between Uranus and Saturn, hence about fifteen hundred times larger than your Earth. Concerning its atmosphere however, this is larger than that of Jupiter and has a diameter of nearly a hundred thousand of your GM miles.
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And what is its orbiting rate around the sun? As this planet's orbit is slow, it takes nearly five hundred years to complete one orbit around the sun.
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Does this planet have moons? It has ten of them, which orbit it at various distances, lighting up this planet quite well through their different positions around it. Their distances from this planet are substantial, the first being sixty thousand miles distant, whilst the last is over a million miles distant. On completion of the latter's orbit, for which it takes nearly thirteen of your months, such periods are called years. The years are not however counted there because they firstly call forth no substantial differences and would secondly be too long and thirdly, on account of lesser human life spans they would be hard to count because one solar year already makes up five or six human life spans.
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On this planet too, only the equatorial regions are inhabited; its polar regions are permanently too snow and icebound for habitation.
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If you found yourself upon this planet, then the size of the sun would assume only the size of your Taler coin (20c), yet to the inhabitants it appears as large as to yourselves. The reason is greater eye pupil development, due to which the latter appears more flat and hence is capable of capturing a greater beam convergence than your own. Another reason is the much higher atmosphere on account of which a considerable fraction of the sun's rays are captured upon its furthest outreach, which, by the law of light condensation, is ever denser upon the surface of the planet, effecting a still moderate temperature, especially at the equator.
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Since this planet is more proximate to another sun, which notwithstanding the latter's distance of seven billion and nine hundred thousand miles from that planet, still brings it closer to it than your Earth by at least a thousand million miles, not to mention its above mentioned higher atmosphere, it enables that planet to also receive some warmth from that other sun. The heat difference however between the actual sun and that other one is as the difference between your deep winter and high summer.
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In this way this planet utilises the rays of still other suns, which forestalls the accumulation of ice, limiting same to certain altitudes as on Earth, beyond which altitude the rays of the sun from every angle again start condensing, moderating the air temperature and preventing further formation of snow and ice. As stated, you can also observe this on Earth. Because an alpine peak above sixteen thousand feet already rises above the ice region. Wherefore you shall find the highest peaks of the Chimborasso as well as the Himalayas of Asia as well as other mountain peaks of these two continents free of snow and ice. As for this planet's polar conditions, these are the same as upon your Earth.
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The inhabitable land resembles an equatorial belt and in the south and north is enclosed by almost unscaleable mountain chains, over which nobody would easily get to the sea regions, where it is already perpetually frigid, as in the northern part of your Siberia. The sea is constantly encumbered by so-called moving ice, wherefore marine travel over it would be ill advised.
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As this belt of over a thousand miles width therewith forms a valley which is made uneven by only a few smaller mountain chains, whilst the entire planetary body turns around its axis within ten hours, giving a night of hardly five hours, this belt is as temperate as an average summer. This temperature is then not subject to any change, except from occasional winds and frequent lunar phases, from which it transpires that the planet's inhabitability, in spite of its great distance from the sun, is not really unfavourable for bringing forth and enlivening a desirable plant and animal kingdom.
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Therewith we have learned the essential details about this planet. Some astronomer may say: if there had ever been another planet in our solar region we would have discovered it long ago, since we discovered much smaller comets, although not visible to the naked eye. But I say: this continued non-discovery is due because it shifts too slowly for detection by astronomical instruments, on account of its immense distance and even more due to the relatively recent period of observation. Thus it comes about that this stellar body is still being viewed as a fixed star, and that of insignificant magnitude, hence not yet recognised as a planet. Was it not a similar case with the nearer planet Uranus, regarded for many thousands of years in its orbit as a fixed star and hardly worthy of consideration, due to weak instruments, and so it will be obvious to the erudite that in spite of their sharp observation, there can still be a planet whose category they have not yet been able to determine due to inadequate instruments.
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Having established this, we can move on to the planet's nature, by which we don't mean any analysis of the actual planet but only its inhabitable ground, the latter's consistency, vegetation and inhabitants.