Washing Machine Imbalance

By Don Bray

The photo below shows Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus as taken by Ben Bray, my son, from Robbins Park in Arlington, Massachusetts, at 10:18 PM, EDT, on the night of July 18, 2018. He assembled this from 14 blended photos taken with his Canon 5D. He was in College Station earlier in July and we talked about this shot, and I am happy to see the results. City lights from Boston are in the background. Not imaged here are the planets Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto which are in the same field, but too dim to show.

This originated with our discussion about the absence of the “washing machine imbalance” situation here where we have the majority of the mass in our solar system all on one side of the Sun, and, yet, not a bobble here in College Station.

My thinking was that a washing machine really becomes imbalanced if the towels all wind up on one side of the tub, and that this is announced by a pronounced “whomp-whomp” as the tub spins, until the unbalance trigger shuts it off.

Here we have major weights of the planets all on one side, and no “whomp-whomp”. The effect must be there, but the fact, I expect, is that the time frame is so long in the planets case that the “whomp-whomp” is not noticed. But, I would expect an astrophysicist to note it, and I never saw it. Why, not sure, must be because it will not be felt by normal folks?

As an engineer, this is curious, but this has not caused a peep from the astrophysicists. Perhaps I am oversimplifying the situation.

Any comments, ideas, discussion by BVAC members? Place your comments on the Yahoo Discussion Group site and let's hear your thoughts. To start the conversation, here are a couple of links with possible clues: Possibility 1 and Possibility 2

Four Planets with Labels

Photo by W. Benjamin Bray - Click to enlarge image