Geometry and space

The fascinating geometric rose that makes the dance of Venus with the Earth

In several cultures, the planet Venus was associated with the beauty and harmony of the cosmos. When we see the figure that weaves the orbit of Venus in relation to the Earth, we can not stop thinking that there is a fabulous coincidence (or perhaps a sample of a mysterious intelligence). To paraphrase a famous Platonic dictum: "The universe geometrizes."

These images show 8 years of the orbit of Venus or 5 synodic cycles, this is equal to 584 days. These are the days that it takes Venus to align with the Sun with respect to the Earth. "Synod" means "encounter", these are the five meeting points in a period of 8 years in which Venus intervenes between the Sun and the Earth. There is an amazing mathematical relationship in this, 8 orbits of the Earth coincide almost exactly with 13 of Venus, forming a 5: 8 ratio known as "synodic resonance". Venus takes 224.7 days to go around the Sun.

In 8 years Venus and the Sun come together 10 times, but it is the 5 lower conjunctions that mark the synodic cycle and draw the vertices of this cosmic rose. It is in each of these lower conjunctions that what has been called the "kiss" of Venus and the Sun occurs.

Kepler enthusiastically described the synodic relationship of Venus and Earth, even saw it as a "marital" relationship, a loving waltz. The musical interval generated by Venus and Earth, for Kepler is a "sixth", given by the division of a string in a fraction of 5/8. Some people have seen in this almost perfect proportion a sample of intelligence that informs the cosmos, as we mentioned before, the Platonic idea that "God geometrizes." Or, as Kepler himself believed, that the universe is the geometric thought of divinity.