Researchers at BRI have noticed a number of problems related to the current theory of precession. While VLBI, laser ranging and other related technologies do a good job at determining the earth’s orientation, the sun’s movement through space has not been coordinated with these findings resulting in unintentional bias of precession inputs. In examining the phenomenon of the precession of the equinox (which was the original impetus for the development of lunisolar precession theory) we have found that a moving solar system model is a simpler way to reproduce the same observable without any of the problems associated with current precession theory. Indeed, elliptical orbit equations have been found to be a better predictor of precession rates than Newcomb's formula, showing far greater accuracy over the last hundred years. Moreover, a moving solar system model appears to solve a number of solar system formation theory problems including the sun's lack of angular momentum. For these reasons, BRI has concluded our sun is most likely part of a long cycle binary system.

A binary system is two stars gravitationally bound orbiting a common center of mass. The stars can be of the same or differing sizes and orbits can be as short as a few days or as long as thousands of years. The short ones are easy to detect, the long ones difficult, some probably impossible to detect because of the very long observation period required.



While there is no obvious visible companion star to our Sun, there could be a dark binary, such as a brown dwarf or possibly a relatively small black hole, either of which might be very difficult to detect, without accurate and lengthy analysis.

There is also the possibility that our sun might be in a binary or complex gravitational relationship with one of several nearby “visible” stars. This scenario may require thinking beyond standard Newtonian dynamics to embrace MOND or MOG or some similar theory (that suggests that the constant of G might be stronger between stellar objects than between planetary objects within the solar system). There could be many types of unknown and unidentified masses that might cause our solar system to curve through space, including the local stellar cluster and even the galactic center to some small degree, each producing some small effect within the total precession observable. Consequently, at this point our work is primarily focused on understanding the precession observable and its nuances as the likely signature of our solar system's angular velocity around some common center of mass. We believe that this approach of analyzing the precession observable (the sun's motion relative to the fixed stars as seen from earth) will provide valuable and helpful data regarding the sun's most likely stellar companion (if one exists).

In summary, beyond direct detection – one way to determine if we are in a binary or multiple star system is to see if the Sun is curving through space. To us on Earth that means we should experience a gradual “changing orientation to inertial space.” Such a phenomenon is observed as the precession of the equinox.