Vall's Stonehenge Meaning

[SpenSpaceCorp]

I recently sent a small lander to land next to Vall's stonehenge in an attempt to decipher what it could mean. So far my theory is that the 5 pyramids represent Jool's Moons. I am not sure what the rectangular stones represent. However, focusing on the 5 pyramids, they grow increasingly smaller, largest in the center to the smallest; the farthest. During high noon, the shadow of the innermost (largest) casts its shadow upon the next one, the second largest, so on and so forth to the smallest (see picture(s) below).

So I thought when they cast their shadows upon the others behind the preceding pyramid, I thought what if it represents the moons lining up and eclipsing each other?

On this thought of the moons lining up to eclipse each other, I also observed the orbital paths and every moon seems to relatively be on the same orbital plane, except for Bop and Pol, which have slightly more inclined orbits. HOWEVER, they both intersect as a single point which also intersects the orbital planes of all the other moons of Jool. My theory is that if an all moon eclipse were to occur, it would during a maximum of twice (or 4, depending on if the moons eclipse in front of or behind Jool) every Jovian year, as there are two points where the orbital plane intersection points could line up with the sun to do this:

<a href="http://imgur.com/1VPBgjB"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/1VPBgjB.png" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

Focusing again on the pyramids, my possible theory is that the central one represents Laythe, and each successive pyramid represents each successively farther moon of Jool.

<a href="http://imgur.com/ULhBHND"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ULhBHND.png" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

Another worthy note on the stone henge is that when viewed from a certain angle, all the pyramid peaks line up and form a line, except for the second one from the center (could represent Vall, the moon where the henge lies). The second pyramid is slightly shorter (image below) than the imaginary line running through each pyramid's peaks. The second pyramid is highlighted in red:

<a href="http://imgur.com/KiBGoU9"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/KiBGoU9.png" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

One more note: Another way of ordering the stonehedges is in order of size in relation to the sizes of Jool's moons. If they are ordered like this (closest moon to the sun to the farthest), in eclipsed form, the largest (Tylo) casts its shadow upon the second largest (Laythe) and so on. Thus, the order the moons line up goes as follows: Tylo, Laythe, Vall, Bop, Pol, as seen in this image below:

So what do you guys think, and what are some of your theories?

Edited January 28, 2014 by SpenSpaceCorp

[User Unrelated]

I really have no idea, but I never knew that existed

and now I want to go there.

[Wooks]

*puts thinking tinfoil hat on* hmmm...

[Richy teh space man]

FYI Vallhenge was set up before the 5th moon of Jool (Pol) was added.

One thing I did notice was that if you stand near the little pyramid and line up your view with the largest one, you do see Tylo and the sun in a sync with each other when time warping.

One of my old theories was that if you put a Kerbal on each rectangle, something might happen, but it didn't:

Looked kind of cool though.

[Mobjack]

The center pyramid could be Jool while the 8 pillars in a circle represent Vall's orbit.

[Guest]

It's a huge sundial.

[SpenSpaceCorp]

It's a huge sundial.

It tells the beings who made it when snack time is XD

[Rainbow-Dashie]

I don't know, therefore Aliens (humans?).

[liweih]

Could you post the location on map mode with an image link? I used kerbal map to find the location but sometimes it was hard to locate the precise location. Just a link to an image is fine, I do not want to spoil it. Thanks.

[SpenSpaceCorp]

Could you post the location on map mode with an image link? I used kerbal map to find the location but sometimes it was hard to locate the precise location. Just a link to an image is fine, I do not want to spoil it. Thanks.

Ill send you a private message as I don't want to spoil it for other users.

[Astronaut]

Nova made a pastebin explaining this.

********OEMGEE MASSIVE SPOILER BELOW************

THE ANSWER TO LIFE THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING

MASSIVE

SPOILERS

BELOW

TURN BACK IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILS

IGNORANCE IS SOMETIMES BLISS

LAST WARNING

************************

http://pastebin.com/3vvjushy

Proof it belongs to Nova http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/60247-Duna-SSTV-transmission/page7

[liweih]

Ill send you a private message as I don't want to spoil it for other users.

Thanks a lot.

[Pineapple Frenzy]

I'll take a stab at this one.

Vall's rotation is tidally locked with Jool. The Joolian sidereal year is 11.37 Kerbal years, with the synodic year slightly less than that (haven't calculated it precisely). Since the orbital periods of Vall and Tylo are synchronized in a ratio of 2:1, every 11 (Kerbal) years or so there would be a Kerbol / Tylo alignment with Jool at opposition from both, and a possible eclipse, visible from the monument's location on Vall. There are 11 cuboid obelisks surrounding the pyramid sight line. My guess is that the number of cuboid obelisks represents the number of Kerbal years between Kerbol / Tylo / Jool alignments.

I haven't yet found the patience to warp ahead to witness this event firsthand. Please feel free to share your results if you do.

However this speculation explains neither the pattern in which the obelisks are arranged (other than the pyramids being a sight line for Kerbol / Tylo), nor the reason anyone would build a monument celebrating a celestial event visible only on Vall, the timing of which is conveyed in units based on a distant planet's orbital period.

The only reasonable explanation I can conceive for the latter mystery is that the builders wanted to prove that they were, if not from Kerbin themselves, at least aware of Kerbin's existence and had observed it's orbital period. Or the Devs just wanted to mess with us.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Pineapple Frenzy

[swiftgates24]

It's already explained what it is, as said at the top of the page.