Chapter 6: Is Sirius the "twin" of our Solar System?

One of the primary objections submitted by opponents of the TYCHOS model is that Mars is far too small to be our Sun's binary companion. They argue that this would gravely violate Newton's gravitational laws - and that Mars, being such a small body, would immediately crash into the Sun. As we presently shall see, this argument is directly contradicted by the very existence of the Sirius binary system - composed of the large Sirius A and the far smaller Sirius B (the two of them being - remarkably enough - proportionally identical to our Sun and Mars).

It is a matter of historical record that when the first binary star systems were discovered, our world's astronomers were totally stumped: the extremely small size of some of these newly-detected star companions (which they kept finding thanks to improved telescopes and spectroscopes) made no sense at all - that is, within the framework of Sir Isaac Newton's theories. For instance, here's what none other than astronomer Royal Sir Arthur Eddington had to say - following the discovery of Sirius B (the tiny binary companion of Sirius A):

"We learn about the stars by receiving and interpreting the messages which their light brings to us. The message of the Companion of Sirius when it was decoded ran: 'I am composed of material 3,000 times denser than anything you have ever come across; a ton of my material would be a little nugget that you could put in a matchbox.' What reply can one make to such a message? The reply which most of us made in 1914 was — "Shut up. Don't talk nonsense."(Sir Arthur Eddington) "White Darf" - Wikipedia

Indeed, as these small binary companions were discovered, Newton's sacrosanct gravitational laws were in grave danger of catastrophic demise. Eventually though, the question was 'rescued' with what must be one of the most egregious cases of outright chicanery in science history: the ad hoc 'resolution' of this pesky affair went as follows: if Sirius B is so very small, then it must be made out of extraordinarily DENSE matter... Today, astronomy students are taught that a sugar cube on Sirius B would weigh some 1000 kg - because the forces of gravity on Sirius B would be (for unknown reasons) 400,000X stronger than on planet Earth! That's right, we are told that Sirius B is 'heavier' than our Sun - in spite of having a slightly smaller diameter than Earth - because its atoms are packed almost half-a-million times tighter than our earthly atoms! I trust that anyone (graced with intellectual honesty) can see what most of our world's scientific community did there - in the name of their untouchable "icon", Sir Isaac Newton.

The very brightest star in our skies is Sirius. It is a 'classic' binary system composed of at least two known bodies: the large Sirius A and the midget Sirius B, the two of which revolve (in intersecting orbits) around their common barycenter. The tiny companion "Sirius B" was discovered as late (or as recently, if you will) as 1862 by Alvan Clark, with what was then the world’s largest refractor telescope. As we shall see further on, a third body ("Sirius C") is now suspected to be part of the Sirius system - even though it is invisible even to our largest telescopes. So let us first take a look at the two visible and well-known bodies of the Sirius binary system.

This is the first photograph of SIRIUS A and Sirius B (by Lindenblad — 1973):

Here is how some astronomy websites illustrate the orbits of SIRIUS A and Sirius B. As you can see, the two bodies are presumed to orbit around nothing at all - or rather, around their common "center of mass" (or barycenter):

Source of above images — Martin Clutterbuck

It should be noted that Sirius B is believed to be a so-called White Dwarf. In Chapter 3, we saw that Mars may well be a so-called Red Dwarf. According to cosmologists, the only difference between a White and a Red dwarf is that the former is a younger star than the latter:

Let's now address the N°1 OBJECTION TO THE TYCHOS MODEL: “Preposterous! Our tiny little Mars is far too small to be the Sun’s binary companion!”

We shall now see why this objection stands on very thin ground, since it is invalidated by the empirically observable fact that the diameters of Sirius A and Sirius B are proportionally identical to our Sun and Mars.

Please note that I am about to compare solely the observed, relative angular diameters of Sirius A and Sirius B - since any claim as to their respective masses is obviously nothing that can be empirically verified from Earth. In fact, all mass-estimates of distant celestial bodies have been based, to this day, upon Einstein’s and Newton’s postulations which, in later decades, have been profoundly questioned - if not roundly falsified. Yet, today's astrophysicists seem to be comfortable with the notion that the “midget star” Sirius B would have a larger mass than that of our Sun! On Wikimedia we may read the following, extraordinary claims:

" The white dwarf, Sirius B, has a mass equal to the mass of the Sun packed into a diameter that is 90% that of the Earth. The gravity on the surface of Sirius B is 400,000 times that of Earth!"

— Sirius A and B - A Double-Star System

As for the diameter and mass of Sirius B, here's what we may read on Wikipedia:

“In 2005, using the Hubble telescope, astronomers determined that Sirius B has nearly the diameter of the Earth, 12,000 kilometres, with a mass 102% of the Sun’s.”

— Wikipedia entry on “Sirius”

You see, the current reasoning within astronomy circles goes a bit like this (paraphrasing):

“Since Newton’s Gravitational Laws predict so elegantly the masses of our own solar system, our entire universe must therefore obey the same laws. Therefore, since Sirius B is far smaller than Sirius A (yet the two of them revolve around their common barycenter), then the mass of Sirius B must be phenomenally large.”

I trust that anyone can sense the inherent fallacy of such 'logic'. What we have here is nothing but a textbook case of 'ad hoc confirmation bias' on the part of our world’s astrophysicists. So let us shove aside for now the abstract question of the (unmeasurable) masses of the distant bodies in our skies - and just assess the (readily measurable) relative diameters of our Sun and Mars, and contrast them directly with those of Sirius A & B (as estimated by Copernican astronomers):

Diameter of SIRIUS A: 2 390 000 km / Diameter of SIRIUS B: 11684.4 km

Ergo: Sirius B’s diameter is 0.4888 % that of SIRIUS A

Diameter of our Sun: 1 392 000 km / Diameter of Mars: 6792.4 km

Ergo: Mars’s diameter is 0.4879 % that of the SUN

That’s right — 0.4888% versus 0.4879% … a proportional difference of barely 0.0009%!

We may also put it the following way (which may be easier to memorize):

Sirius A is about 205 times larger than Sirius B - and our Sun is about 205 times larger than Mars.

Thus, since the relative diameters of SUN & MARS versus those of SIRIUS A & SIRIUS B are practically identical, the knee-jerk objection that “Mars is far too small to be the binary companion of the Sun” is a non-starter; the very existence of the Sirius A & B binary system constitutes empirical evidence that such an 'unbalanced' system can (and does indeed) exist in our cosmos. Remarkable, isn't it? Are we to dismiss this as just some random coincidence - unworthy of any serious consideration and debate? In any event, this observable fact would certainly seem to lend support the TYCHOS model's main contention: namely, that the Sun and the midget Mars are binary companions - much like Sirius A and the midget Sirius B are empirically observed to be, as they revolve around each other in ca. 50 (solar) years.

In my below comparison, I have used an image from the Wikipedia which is captioned as follows: "Image of Sirius A and Sirius B taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Sirius B, which is a white dwarf, can be seen as a faint point of light to the lower left of the much brighter Sirius A." I have added to the image that grey dot (Sirius C?) which will be explained shortly. My composited image at right suggests how our Solar System might look like - to an imaginary inhabitant of Sirius (let's call him "Joe"):

Surely, it would be extremely difficult (or outright impossible) for our Joe to see Earth at all - since it would be swamped by the Sun's blinding glare. Conversely, the same would be true for any earthly observer attempting to detect the elusive "Sirius C" (swamped by the blinding glare of Sirius A). You may now rightly ask: "what is Sirius C?" Well, here we go:

ABOUT THE POSSIBLE EXISTENCE OF "SIRIUS C"

As it is, there may be even more astonishing similarities in store between the Sirius binary system and our own Sun/Mars binary system; although further studies are needed to confirm its existence, it would appear that the Sirius binary system may well harbor a third body – provisionally named “Sirius C”. We shall now take a look at what is currently known about this long-debated third component of the Sirius system - and its most fascinating implications (as viewed under the TYCHOS model's proposed configuration of our Solar System).

A fairly recent (1994) French astrophysical study concluded that there are fairly solid indications for the existence of "Sirius C":
"Is Sirius a Triple Star?" - by D. Benest and J.L. Duvent (1994)

Here's an extract of the above paper (which is well worth reading in its entirety). The Benest-Duvent study essentially concludes that the "Sirius C" object may well exist (although it would be visually swamped by the glare of Sirius A), that it has a far lower mass than its two confirmed binary companions - and that its most likely 'host star' is the large Sirius A (rather than the midget Sirius B):

Before proceeding, let us look at this conventional diagram that illustrates the intersecting orbits of Sirius A and Sirius B as they are viewed from Earth (note the interesting detail that Sirius B is labeled as a "carbon star" - while 96% of Mars's atmosphere is reputedly composed of carbon-dioxide):

The above diagram shows how modern astronomers have interpreted the relative motions of Sirius A and Sirius B: they both revolve in intersecting orbits around... nothing at all! (or, if you will, 'around their common barycenter'). But what if we place that conjectured "Sirius C" in the middle of Sirius A's orbit? In my below graphic, I show how such a situation would compare with a Sun-Mars binary system:

Please note the most remarkable aspect implied by my above comparison: we know that the Mars-to-Earth distances (from perigee to apogee) can vary by a 1-to-7 ratio. Well, this would also be the case if "Sirius C" existed and were located in the middle of Sirius A's orbit (as shown in my above diagram): the SiriusB-to-SiriusC distances would also vary by a 1-to-7 ratio. Needless to say, if this were truly the case, we may reasonably entertain the very fascinating possibility of "Sirius C" being some sort of 'twin sister' of Earth!

THE 7° TILTS OF MARS, THE SUN - AND THE SIRIUS SYSTEM

As will be expounded further on (in Chapter9), our Sun's axis is observed to be tilted at about 6 or 7° in relation to the ecliptic. This is, in fact, a still unexplained "mystery" - for why would the Sun be tilted in relation to our system's planets? Isn't the Sun supposed to be the central, dominating mass of our Solar System? And shouldn't all the planets therefore revolve around the Sun's equatorial plane?

Most interestingly, Mars's axis can also be observed to be tilted at about 7°. This occurred, for instance, in July 2018 - as Mars passed very close to the Earth. On that date, Mars was also 'in opposition' to (i.e. "facing") the Sirius system. Now, as viewed from Earth, the Sirius system also has a "7° tilt component" (as shown in my below graphic). Unless all of this is coincidental, it would clearly seem to suggest that the axes of the Sun and Mars are both tilted "in sympathy" with the entire Sirius system - at approximately 7 degrees.

Source of the sequential Mars images of its 2018 transit: Agena observing guide

Note: yes, Mars's axis is also tilted at about 25° - but in the other direction (i.e. towards or away from us); this is why Mars will alternately show us its North Pole and its South Pole every 8.5 years or so (as it transits at either sides of the Earth). Strangely, in the astronomy literature no mention is to be found - to my knowledge - about Mars's other (lesser-known) 7° axial tilt. And this, in spite of the ongoing and hotly-debated "mystery" of the Sun's 6° or 7° axial tilt (which, as some modern studies have it, would be caused by a distant, invisible body that they are calling "Planet Nine"...). You may now ask: what about our Moon? Does it also have an axial tilt?" Yes indeed; here's what we may read on the Wikipedia: "The Moon's axis of rotation is inclined by in total 6.7° relative to the normal to the plane of the ecliptic. This leads to a similar perspective effect in the north–south direction that is referred to as optical libration in latitude, which allows one to see almost 7° of latitude beyond the pole on the far side." "Orbit of the Moon" - Wikipedia Remarkable, isn't it?

THE DOGON TRIBE'S CURIOUS SIRIUS KNOWLEDGE

“Emme Tolo” is the name given to the elusive "Sirius C" by the DOGON, an ancient African tribe that worshipped the brightest star in our skies. In fact, it still remains a veritable mystery how the Dogons even knew of the existence of the tiny Sirius B, since it is not (currently) visible without a telescope.

The below diagram (author unknown) can be found on various 'alternative' websites depicting a proposed configuration of the Sirius system. Interestingly, it appears to feature the elusive “Sirius C” (a.k.a. “Emme Tolo”) positioned at the barycenter of the Sirius A-B binary system:

"The Dogons and the Stars of Sirius" - by Pacal Votan (2007)

Additionally, the Dogons somehow also knew about an even smaller body revolving in lunar fashion around “Emme Tolo” (a.k.a. Sirius C) — much like our Moon revolves around Earth. They named this satellite 'Nyan Tolo' which translates as “the Women’s Star”. Of course, our Moon (la Luna in Italian, and in Greek mythology represented by the goddess Selene) has always been regarded as “the women’s orb”, what with its sidereal orbital period of 27.3 days (which approximately matches the average female menstrual cycle).

"The Dogon Tribe: Connection Sirius" - by Ivan Petricevic (2007)

What are we to make of this sensational Dogon affair? As unlikely and bizarre as it may sound, it seems however equally unlikely to be just a figment of someone’s imagination. Whether or not it is a fictitious legend of popular lore will not change the observable facts: Sirius B does indeed exist - and "Sirius C", as we have seen, may well exist as well. In any event, if it should eventually turn out that Sirius C (“Emme Tolo”) and its moon (“Nyan Tolo”) both exist, we will have to seriously consider the compelling possibility that the Sirius System is some sort of “Twin family” of our own Solar System:

So, once more: would it be 'preposterous' to contend that Mars is the Sun’s binary companion? Would the (alleged) huge mass of the Sun versus the (alleged) tiny mass of Mars rule out the possibility of the two of them being binary companions? I think it is now wise to question whether the assumed masses of the distant stars and planets have any foundation in reality. To be sure, no one has ever put the Sun and Mars (or SiriusA and SiriusB) on a bathroom scale so as to empirically verify their respective weights! Besides, Mars may be 205 times smaller than the Sun - but it is mostly made of rock and iron, whereas the Sun is 96% helium and hydrogen - the two lightest gases known to man. Hence, it is quite conceivable that their respective weights may be far more similar than currently believed.

In conclusion, I submit that the very existence of the Sirius system is strongly supportive of the TYCHOS model's tenets. It provides, among other things, empirical evidence that a very small celestial body can indeed be the binary companion of a far larger orb. Moreover, it suggests that Sirius, the very brightest binary star system in our skies, may be (for unknown reasons that call for further study) a 'twin family' of sorts to our own binary system. In any event, the fact that the Sirius System is in so many ways similar to our Solar System certainly merits closer scrutiny.

ARE THE SIRIUS SYSTEM AND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM 'DOUBLE-DOUBLE' BINARY COMPANIONS?

The idea that Sirius is the Sun's binary companion star is nothing new. It has been proposed by several independent researchers in later decades (e.g. Karl-Heinz Homann of the Sirius Research Group and Walter Cruttenden of the Binary Research Institute), mostly upon the strength of the fact that Sirius does not appear to precess like all the other stars.

“The fact that Sirius seems to maintain its position relative to the position of the sun was a surprise to most scientists (aware of precession), when it was first noticed by the French scientific community following the Egyptian discoveries of Napoleon (and the Dendera Zodiac) in the early 1800’s.”

— Karl-Heinz Homann (1933 – 2008) - by Walter Cruttenden for BRI’s Sirius Research Group

The idea that Sirius could be a companion star to the Sun was first proposed by the eminent mathematician and Egyptologist R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz. He made his deductions from studying the ancient Egyptian calendars that used the heliacal rising of Sirius as their New Year date. In his book Sacred Science, he observed:

“For it is remarkable that owing to the precession of the equinoxes, on the one hand, and the movement of Sirius on the other, the position of the sun with respect to Sirius is displaced in the same direction, almost exactly to the same extent.”

— Sacred Science: The King of Pharaonic Theocracy by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz (1982, Inner Traditions Reprint)

According to some authors it was none other than Tycho Brahe who first discovered this remarkable behavior of Sirius!

"Sirius remains about the same distance from the equinoxes — and so from the solstices - throughout these many centuries, despite precession’. In a personal correspondence with this author, Jed Buchwald also noted that ‘the effect was actually first discovered long ago by Tycho Brahe in fact, who informed the chronologer Scaliger about it.”

— p. 13, "Sirius and precession of the solstice" - by Uwe Homann (2005)

As you can see in the above table, Sirius has “precessed” in 4000 years (from 3500 BC to 500 AD) by only about four days (from July 16.4 to July 20.3). "The heliacal rise of Sirius and ancient Egyptian chronology" - by Bradley E. Schaefer for Journal for the History of Astronomy

A good summary of this still ongoing Sirius debate may be found at the Human Origin Project website - in an article that is well worth reading in its entirety, were it only to realize just how important Sirius has been for many ancient civilizations in order to devise accurate calendars:

"Ancient calendar systems could be evidence that our solar system is rotating around its binary partner Sirius." "The Science of Sirius Mythology & Our Two Sun Solar System" - by Human Origin Project

To be sure, the existence of so-called 'double-double' stars (i.e. two pairs of separate binary companions revolving around each other in wider binary orbits) is beyond question: we know today of numerous such 'double-double' pairs - one example being the EPSILON LYRAE multiple star system:

So could the Sirius A-B pair possibly be revolving around the Sun-Mars pair? Or is this exceptional synchronicity between the motions of Sirius and our Sun just some fortuitous 'cosmic coincidence' - as mainstream astronomy has it?... Before we get on, you will need to know that - according to the famous celestial mechanist Jean Meeus - Sirius should become our South Pole star in about 60000 years from now! "Say hello to Sirius, a future South Pole Star" - Earthsky.org

At the Constellation Guide website, we may also read what follows:

"Sirius is slowly moving closer to Earth and will gradually increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years, before it starts to recede." "Sirius: the Dog star" - Constellation Guide

Armed with this interesting data and expert predictions, I have elaborated the below, largely speculative graphic. Please know that the relative orbital sizes in this diagram are quite arbitrary - and that what follows is just an exploratory exercise of mine to probe and visualize the hypothesis that the two binary pairs (Sirius A & B / and our Sun & Mars) are a "double-double" system - similar to the Epsilon Lyrae double-double system illustrated above:

(Note that by "ascend northeast" and "descend southwest", I refer to how an imaginary observer in a spaceship located similarly to the viewer of this graphic would describe the secular motions of the two binary systems).

Again, my above graphic is no more than a tentative interpretation of the observational and predictive data available to us today. Yet, if it were to be ultimately proven reasonably correct, it would help elucidating a number of long-debated issues and mysteries surrounding the brightest star in our skies:

1: First of all, it would explain why our entire Solar System does a precessional, CLOCKWISE revolution around itself every 25344 years.

2: It would also explain why Sirius does not appear to precess like all the other stars and has remained almost perfectly 'aligned' with our Sun for millennia.

3: It would elucidate why various ancient civilizations used Sirius as a stable and reliable reference around which they based their all-important calendars - and even used its heliacal rising to mark their New Year date.

4: It would corroborate the prognostication by the highly-esteemed Jean Meeus that Sirius will become our South Pole star in about 60 thousand years.

5: It may even shed light over the total mystery as to how the Dogons knew about the existence of the tiny Sirius B (as well as the invisible 'Sirius C' and its moon): as shown in my above graphic, the Sirius system would periodically pass MUCH closer to the Earth than it is today (i.e. whenever our two binary systems would transit at periastron), thus plausibly permitting a 'naked-eye view' of its various components.

6: Furthermore, it may demystify the 7° axial tilts of the Sun and Mars - which are observed whenever the two are aligned towards the Sirius system (and its apparent 7° obliquity in relation to the celestial ecliptic).

7: Last but not least, it would be consistent with the respective celestial motions of Sirius and our Solar System - in relation to our ecliptic.

All in all, the notion that the Sirius system is not only a 'twin family' of our Solar System - but may also be our wider binary companion (as posited by a number of modern-day, independent researchers) cannot be dismissed offhand. In any event, the simple fact that the Sun-Mars duo is proportionally near-identical to the Sirius A and B duo (a fact that has gone unnoticed to this day) should give the world's scientific community some serious food for thought. To continue to overlook this fact would be tantamount to ignore the proverbial "elephant in the room".