Tidal force the Moon produces a greater tidal force on the Earth than the Sun, even though the Sun exerts a greater gravitational attraction on the Earth than the Moon, because the gradient is less. The Moon produces a greater tidal force on the Earth, than the tidal force of the Earth on the Moon. The distance is the same, but the diameter of the Earth is greater than the diameter of the Moon, resulting in a greater tidal force. What matters is not the total gravitational attraction on a body, but the difference from one side to the other. The greater
Counter-Earth if a Counter-Earth existed, as the navigational calculations for their journeys did not take any putative Counter-Earth into account. Roughly speaking, anything larger than in diameter should have been detected. Furthermore, the gravitational forces of the other planets on a Counter-Earth would make "its" orbit unstable. Venus has 82% of the mass of Earth and would come within 0.3 AU of the location of a Counter-Earth every 20 months, providing considerable gravitational pull that over the years would move its orbit into sight of observers on Earth. If a Counter-Earth was much smaller than Earth, its location at the "Sun–Earth