History Main / CounterEarth

** A Counter-Earth created by the Earth scientist, The High Evolutionary used to be there. He wanted it to be ''better'' than the real Earth, but one of his earlier creations, the Man-Beast, corrupted it. The High Evolutionary almost destroyed it in his disappointment, but the space hero ComicBook/AdamWarlock asked for the chance to save it, and was granted it. (If that sounds like a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic Christ analogy]], it's because it ''was''). The planet was eventually removed from the Solar system by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens and placed in a museum. The ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManUnlimited'' TV series and the associated comic book took place on that one. The comic was not in-continuity with the rest of Marvel's comics however.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Believe it or not, there actually is a way that this trope could be justified. The counter-Earth "point" (actually a circular orbit) is L3, one of the five [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point Lagrange Points]] (actually closed orbits in a three-body system). Unfortunately L3 is not a stable orbit: if the body is even a millimetre out of position, or if it is perturbed in the slightest (say by the gravitation of Venus, Mars, Jupiter) it will move into a chaotic trajectory and eventually leave the vicinity of the L3 point in an unpredictable fashion. This would take on the order of only tens to hundreds of thousand years (less for large perturbations), which is a geologically short time.
* There are five Lagrange Points. L1 and L2 lie directly in front of and directly opposite the Sun from Earth's perspective, at the points where the sun's gravity and Earth's add or cancel just the right amount to produce a circular orbit with the same period as Earth's year. A counter-earth would be at Earth's L3 point. L1, L2 and L3 are unstable, as described above. L4 and L5 are 60 degrees ahead of and behind the Earth, and are also called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_points#L4_and_L5 Trojan Points]] after the Trojan asteroids, which lie around Jupiter's L4 and L5 points (any time a light object orbits a heavy one, there will be Lagrange points). The L4 and L5 points are stable (a small perturbation would put the object into a dynamically-stable, quasi-periodic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_orbit Lissajous orbit]] that would keep it near the Lagrange point), but any object there would be easy to see: an object in the L4 point would be a perpetual morning star, rising four hours before the Sun every day and preceding the Sun on its annual circuit of the ecliptic, and an object in L5 would be a perpetual evening star setting four hours after the Sun every night, and trailing the Sun around the ecliptic.
* The fact that the Lagrange point model assumes there are no other objects of comparable mass to the planet in the same orbit means it cannot be relied on to make a conclusion one way or another about how a three-body system would behave. That said, such a system would not be stable. There is another possibility, called a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_orbit horseshoe orbit.]] A horseshoe orbit does not require vast differences in mass, and an object in one with Earth could temporarily be opposite the sun. However, it would still be detectable.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet)#Theia A hypothetical body in that formed in the L4/L5 spot]] may have created the Moon.
[[/folder]]

The concept [[OlderThanTheyThink originated with the ancient Greeks]] and was known as Antichthon, which is Greek for Counter-Earth. Its use in modern stories is an example of AllTheoriesAreTrue.

In RealLife, this idea has been proven false, even before the space age. A counter-earth's gravity would affect the motion of other planets, and other planets' gravity would cause it to drift out of its position, and the final blow was when probes actually went the other side of the Sun from us and didn't see any counter-earths. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools It's still an exciting idea for fiction, though.]]

In RealLife this idea has been proven false, even before the space age. A counter-earth's gravity would affect the motion of other planets, and other planets' gravity would cause it to drift out of its position, and the final blow was when probes actually went the other side of the Sun from us and didn't see any counter-earths. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools It's still an exciting idea for fiction, though.]]

* Several at Creator/MarvelComics.

* ''[[Film/{{Doppelganger}} Doppelgänger]]'' (also known as ''Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'' in America): Astronauts discover such a world that not only looks like Earth, but ''everything that happens on Earth also happens there'', like mirror images. This includes the astronauts' landing! The [[spoiler: ultimate failure of the mission]] hinged upon an uncertainty as to whether or not electrons would flow in the same direction on both Earths. [[spoiler: They do, but the scientists who built the replacement spacecraft bet the other way, causing the replacement lander to not be compatible with the mother ship.]] Some laws of physics are still fundamental no matter which side of the mirror you're on.

* ''Doppelgänger'' (also known as ''Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'' in America): Astronauts discover such a world that not only looks like Earth, but ''everything that happens on Earth also happens there'', like mirror images. This includes the astronauts' landing! The [[spoiler: ultimate failure of the mission]] hinged upon an uncertainty as to whether or not electrons would flow in the same direction on both Earths. [[spoiler: They do, but the scientists who built the replacement spacecraft bet the other way, causing the replacement lander to not be compatible with the mother ship.]] Some laws of physics are still fundamental no matter which side of the mirror you're on.

A hypothetical planet on the other side of the Sun from the Earth which is usually like the Earth, but hidden. The idea still was popular in old science fiction, and continues to appear in sci-fi that is [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness not very hard]].

A hypothetical planet on the other side of the sun from the Earth which is usually like the Earth, but hidden. The idea still was popular in old science fiction, and continues to appear in sci-fi that is [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness not very hard]].

In RealLife this idea has been proven false, even before the space age. A counter-earth's gravity would affect the motion of other planets, and other planets' gravity would cause it to drift out of its position, and the final blow was when probes actually went the other side of the sun from us and didn't see any counter-earths. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools It's still an exciting idea for fiction, though.]]

* In ''Film/AnotherEarth'' a second earth appears in the solar system, drifting towards ours. There are no dangerous implications. [[ArtisticLicensePhysics Any actual physics is ignored]] as [[TropesAreTools this movie is about grief and second chances]], not science.

In RealLife this idea has been proven false, even before the space age. A counter-earth's gravity would affect the motion of other planets, and other planets' gravity would cause it to drift out of its position, and the final blow was when probes actually went the other side of the sun from us and didn't see any counter-earths. [[TropesAreTools It's still an exciting idea for fiction, though.]]

* The ''HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'' UniverseBible says that Skeleton hails from the planet Infinita that orbits on the other side of Eternia's sun.

A hypothetical planet on the other side of the sun from the Earth which is usually like the Earth, but hidden. The idea still was popular in old science fiction, and continues to appear in sci-fi that is not [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness very hard]].

[[IThoughtItMeant Not related to]] [[Webcomic/EightBitTheater blocking]] [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/09/08/episode-1170-happy-landings/ the ground]].

** One was briefly created in ''[[ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet Infinity Crusade]]'': Paradise Omega, created by The Goddess (Adam Warlock's [[LightIsNotGood "good" side]].)

%comment% This needs work. We need to add the Wikipedia examples without copying them word for word.

TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_planets_of_the_Solar_System#Counter-Earth has a list]].

* Creator/RobertHeinlein's novella "Gulf" had a variation on this. In the BackStory, an asteroid called "Earth-Anti" that is always on the other side of the Sun from Earth is destroyed by the "nova effect", a type of hydrogen bomb that can [[ArtisticLicensePhysics turn a planet into a nova]].

* Zillikian is a counter-Earth featured in the ''Bunduki'' series by JTEdson.

A hypothetical planet on the other side of the sun from the Earth which is like the Earth, but hidden. The idea still was popular in old science fiction, and continues to appear in sci-fi that is not [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness very hard]].

!!Examples

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* Several at MarvelComics.
** A Counter-Earth created by the Earth scientist, The High Evolutionary used to be there. He wanted it to be ''better'' than the real Earth, but one of his earlier creations, the Man-Beast, corrupted it. The High Evolutionary almost destroyed it in his disappointment, but the space hero ComicBook/AdamWarlock asked for the chance to save it, and was granted it. (If that sounds like a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic Christ analogy]], it's because it ''was''). The planet was eventually removed from the Solar system by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens and placed in a museum.
*** The ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManUnlimited'' TV series and the associated comic book took place on that one. The comic was not in-continuity with the rest of Marvel's comics however.

* {{Superman}}'s ComicBook/NewKrypton positioned itself directly opposite Earth.
** In the first few appearances of ''{{Superman}}'', Krypton itself was in fact this. Presumably the writers believed even Krypton-level spaceflight technology would only be able to get that far...

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Doppelgänger'' (also known as ''Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'' in America): Astronauts discover such a world that not only looks like Earth, but ''everything that happens on Earth also happens there'', like mirror images. This includes the astronauts' landing!
** If ''everything'' that happens there is a mirror image, this doesn't explain why its orbital trajectory isn't!
** The [[spoiler: ultimate failure of the mission]] hinged upon an uncertainty as to whether or not electrons would flow in the same direction on both Earths. [[spoiler: They do, but the scientists who built the replacement spacecraft bet the other way, causing the replacement lander to not be compatible with the mother ship.]] Some laws of physics are still fundamental no matter which side of the mirror you're on.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* ''Literature/{{Gor}}''; the name of the series is in fact ''Chronicles of Counter-Earth''.
** To give Norman some credit, Cabot immediately points out that astronomers would be aware of it because of the gravitational effects and that it couldn't stay in position without a way to move it (it turns out the [[AWizardDidIt Priest]]-[[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Kings]] take care of all that). This doesn't make up for Gor managing to share an orbit with Earth but still be closer to the Sun.
* The ''{{Korad}}'' trilogy by F. Mond.

* The ''{{Antigeos}}'' series of novels including ''The Other Side of the Sun'', ''The Other Half of the Planet'') and ''Down to Earth'' by Paul Capon (also serialised on radio by the BBC) are set on the counter-Earth Antigeos.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* The Cybermen in ''Series/DoctorWho'' came from Mondas, a double of Earth. It was not on the other side of the sun in the episode. It originally was in the same vicinity as Earth, until ''something'' happened, shoving Mondas out of its gravitational pull and hurtling it out towards the outskirts of the solar system (what today is called the Kuiper Belt). The people there cyberized themselves to survive, and then tried to move their planet back into place in the solar system, which is where the audience sees them in their first appearance.
** The Audio Play ''Spare Parts'' revealed that the moon entering Earth's orbit destabilised the gravatational balance between Earth and Mondas, and it wasn't until this happened that Mondas's inhabitants became aware of Earth, neatly creating an InvertedTrope
* In ''{{Series/Lexx}}'', a pair of planets orbit both each other impossibly close and our sun on the opposite side as Earth. This is actually part of the [[TheReveal reveal]] at the end of the third season; these planets are [[spoiler: the afterlife. The Lexx blows them up.]]
* In a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch, a character mentions, apropos of nothing, his firm belief in the Counter-Earth.
** The character was Father Guido Sarducci, and he described the planet as nearly entirely Earth-like down to the civilizations; amongst the few differences described was the practice of eating corn on the cob vertically, instead of horizontally.
* ''{{Space 1999}}'' used a variation on this one. The planets Beta and Delta were technically at war, but being on opposite sides of their sun they couldn't actually shoot at each other. Until the itinerant moon wandered along, that is, and the Betans and Deltans started using it, much to the annoyance of the Moonbase Alpha crew, as a missile base from which to attack each other. Which doesn't explain how or why the two planets were at war in the first place....
** Or if they'd ever heard of non-line-of-sight weapons, or orbital mechanics for that matter... (answer: probably not).

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* The newspaper strip ''TwinEarths'' was built around this concept. The counter-Earth Terra orbits opposite Earth. The daily strip featured Vana, a Terran spy living on Earth to keep tabs on their technology, and Garry Verth, an FBI agent. In the Sunday strip, a young Texan named Punch explored Terra with its young prince Torro. This strip mostly consisted of travelogue-like views of Terran life, for example the fact that in their liberated society, women, who constituted 92% of the population, ran things.
* ''ComicStrip/NonSequitur'' has a minor character who is an alien from a counter-Earth called "Mars 3.5", where dinosaurs never went extinct and primates are primitive cave-dwellers.

[[AC:{{Radio}}]]

* The ''[[TwoThousandPlus 2000 Plus]]'' episode “Worlds Apart” involves a planet “exactly opposite the Earth, on the other side of the sun” (but, inexplicably, slightly closer) named Vesta.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

* ''{{Fansadox}}'' issue [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orc]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Counterpart Earth]], a parallel universe that can be entered into through either science, magic or a combination of the two.
* ''TomTheDancingBug'' has a Counter-Earth that is "not quite the opposite of our own...but somewhat dissimilar in certain ways!"

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* In ''SportBilly'', the eponymous hero is from the counter-Earth Olympus, populated by athletic god-like beings.

[[AC:RealLife]]

** There are five Lagrange Points. L1 and L2 lie directly in front of and directly opposite the Sun from Earth's perspective, at the points where the sun's gravity and Earth's add or cancel just the right amount to produce a circular orbit with the same period as Earth's year. A counter-earth would be at Earth's L3 point. L1, L2 and L3 are unstable, as described above. L4 and L5 are 60 degrees ahead of and behind the Earth, and are also called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_points#L4_and_L5 Trojan Points]] after the Trojan asteroids, which lie around Jupiter's L4 and L5 points (any time a light object orbits a heavy one, there will be Lagrange points). The L4 and L5 points are stable (a small perturbation would put the object into a dynamically-stable, quasi-periodic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_orbit Lissajous orbit]] that would keep it near the Lagrange point), but any object there would be easy to see: an object in the L4 point would be a perpetual morning star, rising four hours before the Sun every day and preceding the Sun on its annual circuit of the ecliptic, and an object in L5 would be a perpetual evening star setting four hours after the Sun every night, and trailing the Sun around the ecliptic.
*** The fact that the Lagrange point model assumes there are no other objects of comparable mass to the planet in the same orbit means it cannot be relied on to make a conclusion one way or another about how a three-body system would behave. That said, such a system would not be stable.
** There is another possibility, called a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_orbit horseshoe orbit.]] A horseshoe orbit does not require vast differences in mass, and an object in one with Earth could temporarily be opposite the sun. However, it would still be detectable.
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet)#Theia A hypothetical body in that formed in the L4/L5 spot]] may have created the Moon.

** The Earth of ''TheNewUniverse'' was placed here.

* The ''MST3K'' movie ''Film/StrandedInSpace'' a.k.a. ''The Stranger'' (the failed pilot for a TV series based on ''Doppelgänger'') featured this premise; an astronaut crash-lands on the counter-earth, the government of which tries to study him and prevent him from learning this. After figuring out that he's not on the planet Earth he left (despite the similarity of technology, architecture, human physiology and the general aesthetic of the world at large) he spends the rest of the film trying to sneak onto a space shuttle so he can commandeer it and return home. He doesn't make it and the premise of the show would have been his adventures [[WalkingTheEarth Walking the Counter-Earth]] as he tried to get home.