Phi and the Solar System

The dimensions of the Earth and Moon are in

Phi relationship, forming a Triangle based on
1.618.

The illustration shows the relative sizes of the Earth and the Moon to scale.

 Draw a radius of the Earth (1).

 Draw a line from the center point of the Earth to the center point of the Moon (square root
of Phi).
 Draw a line to connect the two lines to form a Golden Triangle (Phi).

Using dimensions from Wikipedia and geometry’s classic Pythagorean Theorem, this is
expressed mathematically as follows:

Dimension Proportion Mathematical

(km) (Earth=1) Expression

Radius of Earth 6,378.10 1.000 A

Radius of Moon 1,735.97 0.272

 Earth + Moon 8,114.07 1.272 B

Hypotenuse 10,320.77 1.618 (Φ) C

Hypotenuse /

(Earth Radius + 1.618 (Φ) A²+B²=C²

Moon Radius)

Another way of looking at the relationship is to take 10320.77² / 8114.07², which is

106,518,293.39 / 65,838,131.96, which is 1.618.

This triangle is known as a Kepler triangle. This geometric construction is the same as
that which appears to have been used in the construction of the Great Pyramid of
Egypt.

Source: Hidden Nature by Alick Bartholomew. Thanks to Sathimantha Malalasekera

for bringing this to my attention.

Certain solar system orbital periods are closely

related to phi

Certain planets of our solar system seem to exhibit a

relationship to phi, as shown by the following table of the time it takes to orbit around
the Sun:
 Mercury Venus Earth Jupiter Saturn

Power of Phi -3 -1 0 5 7

Decimal Result 0.24 0.62 1.0 11.1 29.0

Actual Period 0.24 0.62 1.0 11.9 29.5

Saturn reveals a golden ratio phi relationship

in several of its dimensions

The diameter of Saturn is very close to a phi relationship with the diameter of its rings,
as illustrated by the green lines. The inner ring division is in a relationship that is very
close to phi with the diameter of the rings outside the sphere of the planet, as illustrated
by the blue lines.The Cassini division in the rings of Saturn falls at the Golden Section of
the width of the lighter outside section of the rings.

Note: Phi grid showing Golden Ratio lines provided by PhiMatrix software.

A closer look at Saturn’s rings reveals a darker inner ring which exhibits the same
golden section proportion as the brighter outer ring.

Venus and Earth reveal a golden ratio phi

relationship
Venus and the Earth are linked in an unusual relationship involving phi. Start by letting
Mercury represent the basic unit of orbital distance and period in the solar system:

Distance Distance Period

from where where

Planet
the sun Mercury Mercury

in km (000) equals 1 equals 1

Mercury 57,910 1.0000 1.0000

 Venus 108,200 1.8684 2.5490

Earth 149,600 2.5833 4.1521

Curiously enough we find:

 Period of Venus * Phi = Distance of the Earth

2.5833

In addition, Venus orbits the Sun in 224.695 days while Earth orbits the Sun in 365.242
days, creating a ratio of 8/13 (both Fibonacci numbers) or 0.615 (roughly phi.) Thus 5
conjunctions of Earth and Venus occur every 8 orbits of the Earth around the Sun and
every 13 orbits of Venus.

Mercury, on the other hand, orbits the Sun in 87.968 Earth days, creating a conjunction
with the Earth every 115.88 days. Thus there are 365.24/115.88 conjunctions in a year,
or 22 conjunctions in 7 years, which is very close to Pi!

See more relationships at the Solar Geometry site.

Relative planetary distances average to Phi

The average of the mean orbital distances of each successive planet in relation to the
one before it approximates phi:
 Mean Relative

distance mean

Planet in million distance

kilometers where

per NASA Mercury=1

Mercury 57.91 1.00000

Venus 108.21 1.86859

Earth 149.60 1.38250

Mars 227.92 1.52353

Ceres 413.79 1.81552

Jupiter 778.57 1.88154

 Saturn 1,433.53 1.84123

Uranus 2,872.46 2.00377

Neptune 4,495.06 1.56488

Pluto 5,869.66 1.30580

Total 16.18736

Average 1.61874

Phi 1.61803

Degree of variance (0.00043)

Note: We sometimes forget about the asteroids when thinking of the planets in our
solar system. Ceres, the largest asteroid, is nearly spherical, comprises over one-third
the total mass of all the asteroids and is thus the best of these minor planets to
represent the asteroid belt. (Insight on mean orbital distances contributed by Robert
Bartlett.)

2005 unveiled the discovery of a 10th planet called 2003UB313. It was found at a
distance of 97 times that of the Earth from the Sun. Its ratio to Pluto would thus be
2.47224, much higher than any previous planet to planet orbital distance ratio. Could it
be that this is actually the 11th planet and the 10th planet will be found at an orbit
whose ratio is 1.52793 times that of Pluto, preserving the phi average? Time will only
tell, but if it happens remember that you heard it here first.

The shape of the Universe itself is a

dodecahedron based on Phi
New findings in 2003 based on the study of data from NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) on cosmic background radiation reveal that the universe is
finite and shaped like a dodecahedron, a geometric shape based on pentagons, which
are based on phi. See the Universe page for more