T78 stamps in the Nine Stars Alignment .

Hello everyone, I am Gen Yuexuan, and I have loved collecting since I was a child.

Speaking of a rare astronomical phenomenon - "Nine Stars in Alignment", many people may have heard this term from film and television literature. Gen Yuexuan remembered the end of the comedy movie "God of Food" starring Stephen Chow, when the God of Food Contest was about to begin, the villain Tang Niu discovered the Nine Stars Alignment and thought that "Nine Stars Alignment must be weird", and sure enough, in the last half minute of the 28th Super God of Food Competition, Stephen Zhou came by boat! Of course, this is just a film director's fabrication.

However, the "alignment of nine stars" is indeed an important and rare astronomical phenomenon.

On March 10, 1982 and May 16, 1982, these two times, human beings on the earth were also fortunate to witness a visual feast of the solar system's "nine stars alignment", when China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications also issued a set of (piece) T78 nine star convergence stamps in accordance with public opinion.

This rare astronomical phenomenon "Nine Stars Alignment", has been a variety of literary, fantasy and film and television works to convey the gods, seems to be covered with a veil of mystery, this issue of Gen Yue Xuan will talk to you about the story behind the design and issuance of this T78 Nine Stars Convergence stamp.

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On March 10 and May 16, 1982, humans on Earth witnessed a visual feast of the solar system's "nine stars", which is an important astronomical phenomenon.

On May 16, 1982, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the People's Republic of China issued a set of special stamps of T78 Nine Star Convergence in order to record the once-in-a-lifetime astronomical phenomenon of two nine-star convergence in the next year.

The stamp is a single set, designed by Zhang Kerang, a famous effective designer in China, and depicts the rare astronomical phenomenon of the "convergence of nine stars" in the solar system. In the upper left corner of the picture is the fiery sun; In order of distance from the Sun, from the inside to the outside: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The colors are brilliant and the composition is vivid, rendering the rich atmosphere of this grand festival in the universe.

If you look closely, you will find that designer Zhang Kerang also deliberately recorded two important time nodes in the middle right of the stamp screen, namely: March 10 and May 16, 1982.

The nine-star alignment, also known as the "nine-star alignment", "nine-star line", etc., is an extremely rare natural celestial phenomenon. It means that when the nine planets are arranged in a straight line on the same side of the sun, they will be arranged in a certain direction, but not as literally as the meaning, like a sugar gourd strung into a line, it is called "nine stars alignment".

The nine planets are the inner planets of the solar system, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (now the eight planets, and the International Astronomical Union removed Pluto from the list of "planets" on August 24, 2006).

As a result, many people in our country wrote letters to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications at that time, suggesting that a set of stamps be issued for this purpose. After receiving the letter from the masses, the stamp issuing bureau held a meeting to discuss, that the stamp record of this rare astronomical phenomenon, is indeed conducive to the popularization of astronomical science knowledge in our country, and then agreed to issue the "nine stars convergence" stamps, and by the famous printmaker, stamp designer Zhang Kerang designed the stamp artwork.

Zhang Kerang first consulted the Beijing Planetarium before designing the artwork of this stamp, and after the design of the stamp, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications sent a special letter to the Chinese Academy of Sciences asking for assistance in reviewing the scientificity of the artwork.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences pointed out in its reply:

The nine stars converge, and they appear once in two or three hundred years. In order to record this rare astronomical phenomenon and promote astronomical scientific knowledge, we support the issuance of the "Convergence of the Nine Stars" stamps.

Since ancient times, due to the level of science and technology and the lack of scientific knowledge, human beings have always had a heart of awe for the stars in the sky, whether in ancient times when astronomy was not yet developed, or in its initial development of modern times, or even in modern times, there will be some people who associate mysterious astronomical phenomena with various catastrophe theories. The "Nine Stars in a Row" disaster theory is one of the representatives.

Those who hold the "nine-star alignment" disaster theory believe that the sun, the earth, and the planets may be connected in a straight line at the end of the world, and the sun's line in the sky will pass through the center of the galaxy, so that the earth will be under the traction of a more powerful unknown cosmic force, accelerating the destruction of the earth.

In fact, some people analyze the time of the appearance of the big ** in history, and think that the frequency of the "convergence of the nine stars" before and after the ** seems to be higher, but it has not yet been determined.

In the written history of mankind, such a "nine-star alignment" has occurred many times in the past few thousand years, the most recent of which was March 10 and May 16, 1982, before the release of the T78 nine-star convergence. However, Gen Yuexuan also specially checked the information of that year and found that there was no catastrophe in the world that year. Therefore, the "Nine Stars Alignment" disaster theory seems to be a bit unfounded.

What was the situation during the 6,000 years, from 3001 B.C. to 3000 A.D.? According to the results of computer simulation, scientists selected the "planetary alignment" of more than 7 planets in the past 300 years (1850-2150), the maximum value of the angle, and included the angle less than 13 degrees in the "planetary alignment", a total of 17 times of this celestial phenomenon, and the nearest "planetary alignment" occurred at 0:00 on May 20, 2000, with an angle of 12 6 degrees. At this time, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, these seven planets are aligned in 12Within 6 degrees, the last "alignment of seven stars" occurred at 9 o'clock on March 6, 1965, when Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto were aligned within 9 3 degrees.

It is expected to occur at 4 o'clock on December 6, 2149, and it will be a relatively rare "Nine Star Alignment". But the real bead (into a straight line) of the opportunity is also very few, so it is more appropriate to call it "nine star convergence", which shows the rigorous and serious attitude of China's scientific and technological workers at that time, because as mentioned above, the naming and design of the T78 stamp is the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications sent a letter to the Chinese Academy of Sciences to assist in reviewing the scientific nature of the "nine star convergence" and finalized. The quasi-cycle of the "convergence of nine stars" in the geocentric coordinate system is about 100 years (as short as more than 130 years and as long as more than 180 years).

After looking up the scientific knowledge, it will be found that this is actually related to the angle ( ) formed by the connection between the earth and other planets and the line between the sun and the earth.

The "six-star alignment" occurs 49 times when the angle is less than 5 degrees, the "seven-star alignment" occurs 3 times, and the "eight-star alignment" or more does not occur or will not occur. If the angle is expanded to 10 degrees, there are 709 times of "six-star alignment", 52 times of "seven-star alignment", and 3 times of "eight-star alignment". In order to determine the occurrence of the "Nine Stars Alignment", the angle must be expanded to 15 degrees, and even then, the "Nine Stars Alignment" has only occurred once in 6,000 years, which is the "Nine Stars Alignment" that occurred on December 6, 1149, and the angle is 14 8 degrees. The planets converge in a specific range of the night sky.

From the perspective of tidal gravitation, the celestial body that forms the greatest gravitational force on Earth is the moon, followed by the sun; The total tidal attraction of the eight major planets other than the Earth is less than 1/100,000 of the tidal force of the sun and the moon.

Therefore, it is safe to say that this cross-shaped arrangement does not cause abrupt changes in solar activity and the rotation of the Earth. As for the magnetic fields and tiny radiation of some planets, no matter what shape the planets are arranged, they have little effect on the Earth.

It is worth mentioning that this set of T78 Nine Star Convergence stamps was also awarded the "Best Topic Stamp" in 1983 in the "1982 Best Stamps Selection" event.

The units participating in the "Best Topic Stamp Selection" activity include: sponsored by the All-China Philatelic Federation and China Stamp Corporation, "Philately" Magazine, "China Philately" (English) Magazine, Workers' ** Press, China Youth Daily, People's Posts and Telecommunications Agency and **TV Station.

T78 stamps won the 1982 "Best Topic Stamp Selection", which once again verified the phrase "the eyes of the masses are bright". Because the birth of this set of T78 stamps is a set of stamps born by the group power to promote the decision-making of the upper level (Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications), it is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the people.

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