Page Text
________________
APPENDIX B'
SATELLITES OF THE EARTH
The first satellite is the moon, which has a diameter nearly 1/4th of that of the Earth i.e. a little over 2000 miles and is situated at a distance of 239,000 miles or 60 Maha yojanas from us. Its mass is only 1/81 of that of the Earth, the latter being 5.87 X 10 tons. It revolves round the Earth in a circular orbit and takes 27.3 days to complete the revolution. It is on this moon that the mar has recently landed.
Till now people believed in only one moon of the Earth but it is not true. Lars Danielsson of the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweeden, and W. H.IP of the University of California, San Diego, U.S.A., have recently discovered the second moon of the Earth which has been named TORO. They computed TORO'S Orbit and found it to be in consonance with the Earth Moon system. Toro has a period of 1.6 years; i.e. it takes 1.6 years to go completely round the Earth. At its colsest approach it is at a distance of 12.2 million miles or 3000 Mahavojanas from the Earth. Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfven and Gustaf Arrhenius, both of the University of California, San Diego (Physics Today, 24, 17) have suggested manned flights to the second moon for further investigation of the solar system.
This agrees quite well with the Jaina view that there are two moons of the Earth.
The two suns : According to Jaina Cosmography there are two Suns in Jambu Dvipa revolving round mount Sumeru." Jambu Dvipa literally means--a land of oval shape with a hulge in the middle resembling a Jambolan fruit. Our Earth
371.
VI PUTUT TACI (Tautvartha-sutra, 4. 13)
| SR No. | 006547 |
| Book Title | Cosmology Old and New |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | G R Jain |
| Publisher | Bharatiya Gyanpith |
| Publication Year | 1991 |
| Total Pages | 232 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English & Philosophy |
| File Size | 12 MB |