Abstract.
The hypothesis of the explosion of a number of planets and moons of our solar
system during its 4.6-billion-year history is in excellent accord with all
known observational constraints, even without adjustable parameters. Many of
its boldest predictions have been fulfilled. In most instances, these
predictions were judged highly unlikely by the several standard models the eph
would replace. And in several cases, the entire model was at risk to be
falsified if the prediction failed. The successful predictions include: (1)
satellites of asteroids; (2) satellites of comets; (3) salt water in
meteorites; (4) “roll marks” leading to boulders on asteroids; (5) the
time and peak rate of the 1999 Leonid meteor storm; (6) explosion signatures
for asteroids; (7) strongly spiked energy parameter for new comets; (8)
distribution of black material on slowly rotating airless bodies; (9)
splitting velocities of comets; (10) Mars is a former moon of an exploded
planet.
Titius-Bode Law of Planetary Spacing |
Planet |
Distance |
Formula |
Mercury |
0.4 |
0.5 |
Venus |
0.7 |
0.7 |
Earth |
1.0 |
1.0 |
Mars |
1.5 |
1.6 |
? |
-- |
2.8 |
Jupiter |
5.2 |
5.2 |
Saturn |
9.5 |
10 |
Uranus |
19.2 |
19.6 |
Neptune |
30.1 |
38.8 |
|
Formula: distance in au
=0.4+0.3*2(n-2) |
Where It Began – the Titius-Bode Law of Planetary Spacing
In the latter half of the 18th century, when only six
major planets were known, interest was attracted to the regularity of the
spacing of their orbits from the Sun. The table shows the Titius-Bode law of
planetary spacing, comparing actual and formula values. This in turn drew
attention to the large gap between Mars and Jupiter, apparently just large
enough for one additional planet. Today we know of tens of thousands of
“minor planets” or asteroids with planet-like orbits at that average
mean distance from the Sun.
With the discovery of the second asteroid in 1802, Olbers proposed
that many more asteroids would be found because the planet that belonged at
that distance must have exploded. This marked the birth of the exploded
planet hypothesis. It seemed the most reasonable explanation until 1814,
when Lagrange found that the highly elongated orbits of comets could also be
readily explained by such a planetary explosion. That, unfortunately,
challenged the prevailing theory of cometary origins of the times, the
Laplacian primeval solar nebula hypothesis. Comets were supposed to be
primitive bodies left over from the solar nebula in the outer solar system.
This challenge incited Laplace supporters to attack the exploded planet
hypothesis. Lagrange died in the same year, and support for his viewpoint
died with him when no one else was willing to step into the line of fire.
Newcomb’s Objection – All Asteroids Can’t Come From One
Planet
In the 1860s, Simon Newcomb suggested a test to distinguish the two
theories of origin of the asteroids. If they came from an exploded planet,
all of them should reach some common distance from the Sun, the distance at
which the explosion occurred, somewhere along each orbit. But if asteroids
came from the primeval solar nebula, then roughly circular, non-intersecting
orbits ought to occur over a wide range of solar distances between Mars and
Jupiter.
Newcomb applied the test and determined that several asteroids had
non-intersecting orbits. He therefore concluded that the solar nebula
hypothesis was the better model. Newcomb’s basic idea was a good one. But
only a few dozen asteroids were known at the time, and Newcomb did not
anticipate several confounding factors for this test. Because Newcomb
didn’t realize how many asteroids would eventually be found, he didn’t
appreciate the frequency of asteroid collisions, which tend (on average) to
circularize orbits. He also did not appreciate that planetary perturbations,
especially by Jupiter, can change the long-term average eccentricity (degree
of circularity) of each asteroid’s orbit. Finally, Newcomb did not
consider that more than one planet might have exploded, contributing
additional asteroids with some different mean distance. In Newcomb’s time,
no evidence existed to justify these complications.
When Newcomb’s test is redone today, the result is that an
explosion origin is strongly indicated for main belt asteroids. In fact, the
totality of evidence indicates two exploded parent bodies, one in the main
asteroid belt at the “missing planet” location, and one near the
present-day orbit of Mars. This article will review that evidence.
Where Did All the Mass Go?
Although over 10,000 asteroids have well-determined orbits, the
combined mass of all other asteroids is not as great as that of the largest
asteroid, Ceres. That makes the total mass of the asteroid belt only about
0.001 of the mass of the Earth. A frequently asked question is, if a major
planet exploded, where is the rest of its mass?
Consider what would happen if the Earth exploded today. Surface and
crustal rocks would shatter and fragment, but remain rocks. However, rocks
from depths greater than about 40 km are under so much pressure at high
temperature that, if suddenly released into a vacuum, such rocks would
vaporize. As a consequence, over 99% of the Earth’s total mass would
vaporize in an explosion, with only its low-pressure crustal and upper
mantle layers surviving.
The situation worsens for a larger planet, where the interior
pressures and temperatures get higher more quickly with depth. In fact, all
planets in our solar system more massive than Earth (starting with Uranus at
about 15 Earth masses) are gas giants with no solid surfaces, and would be
expected to leave no asteroids if they exploded. Bodies smaller than Earth,
such as our Moon, would leave a substantially higher percentage of their
mass in asteroids. But the Moon has only about 0.01 of Earth’s mass to
begin with.
In short, asteroid belts with masses of order 0.001 Earth masses are
the norm when terrestrial-planet-sized bodies explode. Meteorites provide
direct evidence for this scenario of rocks either surviving or being
vaporized. Various chondrite meteorites (by far the most common type) show
all stages of partial melting from mild to almost completely vaporized.
Indeed, it is the abundant melt droplets, called “chondrules”, that give
chondrite meteorites their name.
Modern Evidence for Exploded Planets
Two important lines of evidence that asteroids originated in
an explosion are the explosion signatures (described later in this article),
and the rms velocity among asteroids, which is as large as is allowed by the
laws of dynamics for stable orbits. In other words, the asteroid belt is
certainly the remnant of a larger population of bodies, many of which
gravitationally escaped the solar system or collided with the Sun or
planets.
Two important lines of evidence that meteoroids originated in
an explosion are: (1) The most common meteorite type, chondrites, have all
been partially melted by exposure to a “rapid heating event”. Other
asteroids show exposure to a heavy neutron flux. Blackening and shock are
also common traits. (2) The time meteoroids have been traveling in space
exposed to cosmic rays is relatively short, typically millions of years.
Evidence of multiple exposure-age patterns, as would happen from repeated
break-ups, is generally not seen.
Comets are so strikingly similar to asteroids that no defining
characteristic to distinguish one from the other has yet been devised. This
is rather opposite to expectations of the solar nebula hypothesis, because
comets should have been formed in the outer solar system far from the main
asteroid belt. A traceback of orbits of “new” comets (that have not
mixed with the planets before) indicates statistically that these probably
originated at a common time and place, 3.2 Mya. [i]
But it should be noted that galactic tidal forces would eliminate comets
from any bodies that exploded prior to 10 Mya, so only very recent
explosions can produce comets that would remain visible today.
Figure
1.
Saturn’s black-and-white moon Iapetus.
|
A major explosion would send a blast wave through the solar system,
blackening exposed, airless surfaces in its path. Most such solar system
surfaces are indeed blackened, even for icy satellites. But a few cases have
such slow rotation that only a little over half of the moon gets blackened.
Saturn’s moon Iapetus is one such case, because its rotation period is
nearly 80 days long. Figure
1 shows a spacecraft image of Iapetus. One side is icy bright; the
other is coal black. The difference in albedo is a factor of five. Gray
areas are extrapolations of black areas into regions not yet photographed.
As such, they represent a prediction of what will be seen when a future
spacecraft (Cassini?) completes this photography.
Perhaps the most basic explosion indicator is that all fragments of
significant mass will trap smaller nearby debris from the explosion into
satellite orbits. So explosions tend to form asteroids and comets with
multiple nuclei of all sizes. Collisions, by contrast, normally cannot
produce fragments in orbits because any debris orbits must lead either to
escape or to re-collision with the surface. Moreover, collisions tend to
cause existing satellites to escape, leading to asteroid “families”
(many of which are seen). Our prediction that asteroids and comets would
often be found to have satellites has been confirmed in recent years. The
first spacecraft finding (by Galileo) was of moon Dactyl orbiting
asteroid Ida in 1993. More recently, Hubble imagery found that Comet Hale-Bopp
has at least one, and possibly three or more, secondary nuclei. [ii]
Over 100 additional lines of evidence related to the eph and the
standard models it would replace are summarized in [iii].
Did More Than One Planet Explode?
Many lines of evidence suggest more than one planetary explosion in
the solar system’s history. The discovery of one, and probably two, new
asteroid belts orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune is especially suggestive,
given that the main asteroid belt is apparently of exploded planet origin.
Evidence of the “late heavy bombardment” in the early solar system is
another strong indicator. These points are discussed later in this article.
On Earth, geological boundaries are accompanied by mass extinctions
at five epochs over the last billion years. Two of the most intense of
these, the P/T boundary about 250 Mya, and the K/T boundary (and the
extinction of dinosaurs) at 65 Mya, are the most likely to be associated
with the damage to Earth’s biosphere expected from a major planet
explosion.
Meteorites provide direct evidence about their parent bodies. Yet
this evidence strongly indicates at least 3-4 distinct parent bodies. Oxygen
isotope ratios are generally similar for related planetary bodies, such as
all native Earth and Moon rocks. These ratios for meteorites require at
least two distinct, unrelated parent bodies, and probably more. Cosmic ray
exposure ages of meteorites indicate how long these bodies have been exposed
to space, because cosmic rays can penetrate only about a meter into a solid
body. Collisional break-up can reset the exposure ages for some meteorites,
and produce “double exposure” or other complexities for others. The data
show clusterings of exposure ages around several different primary epochs,
suggesting multiple explosion epochs.
Main belt asteroids come in many types, but most of these are
sub-type distinctions. 80% of all main belt asteroids are of type C
(“carbonaceous”), and most of the remaining 20% are of type S (“silicaceous”).
The former are found predominately in the middle and outer belt, while the
latter are mostly in the inner belt, the part that lies closest to Mars.
These two types are unlikely to have had the same parent body.
Finally, it should be noted that we can estimate the total mass of
the body that exploded to produce all the comets seen today. (The lifetime
of those comets is limited to 10 million years by galactic tidal forces and
planetary perturbations.) That parent body mass is almost certainly less
than the size of our Moon, because the carbonaceous meteorites most closely
associated with comets indicate a parent body that was too small to
chemically differentiate.
Explosion Signatures in the Main Asteroid Belt
In Figure
2, we show a plot of average orbital eccentricity (called “proper
eccentricity”) versus average mean distance (called “proper semi-major
axis”) for thousands of main-belt asteroids. We included the numbered
asteroids having periods between one-half and one-third the period of
Jupiter. If the primeval solar nebula hypothesis were correct, numbers of
asteroids with near-zero eccentricity would be roughly equal at all mean
distances well away from the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Indeed, nebular
drag and collisions would ensure that orbits with zero eccentricity were
preferred. By contrast, if the exploded planet hypothesis is correct, a
minimum eccentricity, increasing to either side of a mean distance of about
2.8 au, should be evident in the plot. The “V”-shaped line shows the
theoretical minimum eccentricity, according to the eph.
Figure
2.
Semi-major axis (mean distance from Sun) vs. eccentricity for main
belt asteroids near theoretical parent planet distance, showing an
explosion signature.
|
We see in Figure
2 that, despite about as much scattering across the minimum line as
expected (increasing toward Jupiter on the right), the densest number counts
trend up and away, paralleling the V-shaped line, on both sides of the
inferred exploded planet distance, 2.82 au. It is difficult to imagine this
explosion-predicted low-eccentricity avoidance occurring by chance –
especially since the primeval solar nebula hypothesis predicts a preference
for low eccentricity values. What we are seeing here is Newcomb’s argument
applied with modern knowledge and data. The expected characteristic of
fragments that originated in an explosion is seen. The expected
characteristic of objects present since the solar system’s beginning, even
if only collisional fragments thereof, is not seen.
Energy Parameters for “New Comet” Orbits
Figure 3.
Comet energies before (left) and after (right) passage through
planetary region. Plot shows number of comets (ordinate) versus energy
parameter (abscissa).
|
Astonishingly, a great many comets are discovered
that have energy parameter values close to zero, the threshold of
gravitational escape, in units where Earth’s energy parameter is
–100,000. Before mixing with the planets, a clustering of energy
parameters near –5 exists, as shown in the left half of Figure
3. However, as these same comets recede again far from the planets,
the clustering property is virtually destroyed, as shown on the right side
of Figure
3. The scattering is so great that no clustering near –5 or any
other value will exist the next time around. So these comets must have been
making their first visit to the planetary part of the solar system. For that
reason, they are called “new comets”.
These new comets, first noted by Oort, were not the
belt of comets beyond Pluto expected by the primeval solar nebula
hypothesis. They arrive from all directions on the sky, with no tendency to
be concentrated toward the plane of the planets. Also, they move in
directions opposite to the planets as often as in directions consistent with
the planets. Because of these traits and a mean distance of 1000 times
greater than that of Pluto from the Sun, the far-away source of Oort’s new
comets was designated the “Oort cloud”.
The exploded planet hypothesis predicted something similar. The
energy parameter implies a particular period of revolution around the Sun.
If a planet exploded “x” years ago, then new comets returning for the
first time today would arrive on orbits with period “x”. Comets with
shorter periods would have returned in the past, mixing with the planets and
eventually being eliminated (or now in the process of being eliminated).
Comets with longer periods would not yet have returned for the first time.
So the eph predicts that all new comets should have the same period “x”,
and therefore the same energy parameter corresponding to a period of
“x”. The center of the spike on the left side of Figure
3 corresponds to a period of 3.2 million years, which is therefore
the time since the last explosion event.
Figure
4.
Comet energies before passage through planetary region for class 1A
comets (best orbits) on left, and for classes 1B, 2A, 2B comets (less
accurate orbits) on right.
|
In the 1970s, astronomer Opik devised a test to
determine if the Oort cloud really existed, or if the “clustering” was
really a spike, as predicted by the exploded planet hypothesis. The
published orbits of new comets have an orbit quality parameter, which
indicates which orbits ought to be very accurate because of a long observed
arc with lots of well-distributed observations (class 1A); and which orbits
ought to have higher observational errors because of short arcs and/or fewer
or poorly distributed observations (classes 1B, 2A and 2B). In the standard
model with an Oort cloud of comets, there is no obvious way to tell the
difference between comets anywhere in the energy parameter range on the left
side of Figure
3. So there is no reason for any observational class of comet to be
other than randomly distributed among all the comets in that figure. If all
the orbits could be improved to class 1A, the overall average appearance of
the distribution ought to be unchanged.
However, in the eph, the real distribution would have
all the comets in a single bin, and all the observed spread of energy
parameter values would be due to observational error. So comets of
observational classes 1B, 2A and 2B ought to have a broader distribution
than class 1A comets because 1A comet orbits are closer to reality (less
observational error). And if all the comets of classes 1B, 2A and 2B were
improved to class 1A, the whole distribution should narrow greatly. Opik’s
test was to separate comets of class 1A from the other classes to determine
if the distribution was significantly broader for the other classes than for
class 1A (indicating the eph is right), or essentially the same for both
groups (indicating the Oort cloud is right).
The results are shown on the left side of Figure
4 for new class 1A comets and on the right side of the same figure
for new comets of classes 1B, 2A and 2B. (Note that these orbit quality
codes are assigned by cometary astronomers using published criteria. This
author had no role in determining these designations.) The left side shows
2.6 times as many comets in the central spike as in the immediately
adjoining bins combined. The right side shows only 0.8 times as many comets
in the central spike as in the two adjoining bins, and has a clearly broader
distribution.
The Opik test is cleanly passed by the exploded planet hypothesis,
but not by the Oort cloud model. Anyone working with the published new comet
data could arrive at the same conclusion. If skeptical readers suspect that
the author may have consciously or unconsciously selected the data so as to
give a favorable outcome, recall that Opik, who strongly doubted the eph
when he thought of this test, came to the same conclusion even with the
smaller amount of comet data available to him 20 years ago. In essence, we
have proved that Lagrange’s instinct 200 years ago was right on target:
Comets (at least most of them) acquired their extremely elongated,
planet-crossing orbits by ejection in an explosion that we can now date at
3.2 million years ago. New comets are the continuing rainback of debris from
that explosion.
Satellites of Asteroids and Comets
If asteroids and comets are the products of accretion from a nebula,
or even from collisional break-ups, they will invariably be isolated single
bodies because their gravitational fields are too weak to effect captures.
For example, in a break-up event, most debris escapes, and what does not
falls back onto the surface it was ejected from after one orbit. Even if it
managed to barely miss the surface, tidal forces would bring it back down in
short order.
By contrast, in the eph, space is filled with debris just after the
explosion. Large fragments will find lots of debris inside their
gravitational spheres of influence, and these will remain in stable orbits
as permanent satellites of these larger fragments. For that reason, I
presented papers at the International Astronomical Union meeting in
Argentina in 1991, and the Flagstaff meeting of asteroid, comet, and
meteorite experts in that same year, pointing out the eph prediction.
Specifically, spacecraft visiting asteroids (or comets) should find at least
one of the larger debris bodies (satellites) in orbit around the asteroid
(or comet) primary nucleus. This prediction, also published in [iii]
and [iv],
was considered extremely unlikely by mainstream astronomers, one of whom
made a public wager with me that it would not happen.
The Galileo spacecraft flew by asteroid Ida in 1993, and returned
images showing a 1-km satellite (now named Dactyl) in a stable orbit around
its nucleus. Since that discovery, two telescopic discoveries of satellites
of other asteroids have been made. [v]
This supplements occultation and radar evidence of long standing suggesting
asteroid satellites. A year before the NEAR spacecraft went into
orbit around asteroid Eros in February 2000, I altered the general
prediction of satellites to a more specific one: If the gravity field of an
asteroid is too irregular for stable orbits to exist near the synchronous
orbit (as is the case for Eros), then the debris that once orbited the
nucleus would now be found as intact boulders lying on the asteroid surface.
[vi]
These would be easy to identify because of their tangential touchdown onto
the asteroid, resulting in considerable rolling from their orbital momentum.
So “roll marks” were the predicted identifier to show that boulders were
former satellites.
Figure 5.
NEAR spacecraft photo of a large crater on asteroid Eros with a
trail across a crater rim, leading to an interior boulder.
|
The first image taken by the spacecraft from orbit around Eros is
shown in Figure
5. The two blocks are areas where contrast was stretched for better
visibility of the “roll mark”. The image appears to show a track
starting in a random location, going up the outside wall of a crater, down
the inside wall, and ending in a 50-meter boulder. Many additional examples
of boulders, tracks, and boulders at the ends of tracks can be seen in later
spacecraft images.
In the meantime, evidence for comet satellites was mounting as well.
The Giotto spacecraft was the first to approach a comet, where it
found “brightness concentrations” in the inner coma referred to as
“dust spikes”. [vii]
Then Hubble Space Telescope observations of Comet Hale-Bopp showed at
least one, and probably three secondary nuclei orbiting the primary comet
nucleus. [ii]
Although this finding was controversial, the satellite interpretation was
subsequently confirmed as the most reasonable explanation by other
investigators. [viii]
The largest of these secondary bodies is a 30-km satellite of an estimated
70-km primary nucleus.
Comet Split Velocities
Another strong test
distinguishing the eph from the standard models comes from comet
split-velocity data. The eph leads to what I call the “satellite model”
as an explanation of what a comet is and how it behaves. The standard model
for comets is the so-called “dirty snowball” model. In the former case,
comets are rocky asteroids surrounded by a debris cloud. In the latter case,
they are a snow-ice mixture contaminated with dust packed into a lone
nucleus that is eruptive when exposed to sunlight. It ought to be easy to
distinguish these two extreme possibilities from observations. And indeed,
it is. One of the strongest such tests follows.
Some comets are observed to “split” into two or more comets. That
was unexpected behavior in the dirty snowball model, but is explained after
the fact as the breaking apart of the snowy nucleus under the action of
strong jets. “Splitting” is required by the satellite model because, as
the comet approaches the Sun and its gravitational sphere of influence
shrinks, some outer satellites may find themselves outside the sphere of
influence. Such objects then escape into independent solar orbits. The
escape event will appear to a distant observer as a “split” of the comet
into two or more pieces.
The test involves the velocity of the fragment comets relative to the
original comet from which they split. In the dirty snowball model, the
velocity is the result of jet action. The energy source might be entirely
internal to the comet, in which case the velocity of ejection of split comet
fragments will be independent of the distance from the Sun at which the
split occurs. Alternatively, the energy for the split in the dirty snowball
model might come from solar light, solar heat, solar wind, solar magnetism,
or something associated with the Sun. In all such cases, the energy ought to
increase inversely with the square of solar distance, which will yield
relative velocities that are inverse with solar distance to the first power.
The dirty snowball model, because it does not predict such splits, is not
specific about which mechanism, a solar or a non-solar energy source, is the
correct one.
Figure
6.
Comet split velocities (V) vs. solar distance (R). C = comet internal
energy; S = solar energy; E = eph satellite model; shaded area is one
sigma observational upper and lower bounds.
|
By contrast, the eph and its satellite model require gravitational
escapes of satellite comets as the sphere of influence of the primary
nucleus shrinks upon approach to the Sun. The laws of dynamics require that
“split” fragment velocities be escape velocities, which vary inversely
with the square root of solar distance. Any other observed relationship
would falsify the model.
In Figure
6, we show a plot of split-comet component relative velocities, V,
versus solar distance of the comet in astronomical units at the time of
splitting, R, on a log-log scale. The data and its one-sigma spread lie
within the shaded region. For comparison, three theoretical curves are
shown, labeled “C”, “S”, and “E”. These represent a
comet-internal energy source, a solar energy source, and gravitational
escape energies as predicted by the eph, respectively. All curves have been
shifted vertically to intersect at 1 au because only the slopes are
relevant.
It is apparent that the theoretical curve predicted by the eph model
falls within the one-sigma data region, and is therefore fully in accord
with the observations. Both of the possibilities for the dirty snowball
model fall well outside the data range by at least four sigma. This means
the dirty snowball model is excluded as an explanation at the statistical
level of better than 10,000-to-1.
In summary, we see that the satellite model for the nature of comets,
based on the eph model for the origin of comets, is consistent with the
observational data; whereas the standard model is strongly excluded by the
data.
The Late Heavy Bombardment
Planetary and moon explosions are not just a recent
phenomenon. There is direct evidence for the explosion of one or more very
large planets in the very early solar system. From studies of lunar rocks it
is now known that the Moon, and presumably the entire solar system with it,
underwent a “late heavy bombardment” of unknown origin not long after
the major planets formed. The following are relevant descriptions of the
event: [ix]
“[The late heavy bombardment] occurs
relatively late in the accretionary history of the terrestrial planets, at a
time when the vast majority of that zone’s planetesimals are already
expected to have either impacted on the protoplanets, or been dynamically
ejected from the inner planets region.”
“It appears that a flux of impactors flooded
the terrestrial planets region at this point in the solar system’s
history, and is preserved in the cratering record of the heavily cratered
terrain on each planet.”
“An essential requirement of any explanation
for the late heavy bombardment is that the impactors be ‘stored’
somewhere in the solar system until they are suddenly unleashed about 4.0
Gyr ago.”
“A plausible explanation for the late heavy
bombardment remains something of a mystery.”
“...it seems likely that the late heavy
bombardment is not the tail-off of planetary accretion but rather is a late
pulse superimposed on the tail-off. Nor is there any reason to suppose that
it was the only such pulse; it may have been preceded by several others
which are not easily discernible from it in the cratering record.”
In short, the late heavy bombardment, a real solar
system event, sounds like an early planetary explosion event.
The K/T Boundary Event at 65 Mya
The following documented geological events at the terrestrial K/T
boundary at 65 Mya can easily be associated with a planetary explosion
event, most likely the explosion of “Planet V” near the present-day
orbit of Mars.
- two boundary layers
(ash and clay) of global extent
- at least eight known
major impact craters across globe from that epoch
- “hot zones” of
radioactivity found in Africa at the K/T boundary
- the Deccan Traps in
India – the 2nd largest episode of volcanism in Earth history
- changes in atmospheric
and ocean composition
- a single global fire
- the
extinction of 70% of all terrestrial species
- the absence of
corresponding layers in the Antarctic
This last point might need some clarification. If an event occurs at
a great distance from the Earth, it would potentially affect just one
hemisphere of the Earth if it is a quite sudden phenomenon. But if it lasts
for more than 12 hours, as would occur for the spread in arrival times of a
blast wave from a distant planet explosion, then the Earth would rotate on
its axis, exposing most parts of the planet to the event. However, because
of the tilt of the Earth’s axis to the mean plane of the planets, one
polar region of Earth would remain continuously hidden from such an event
unless its duration continued over many months. For the K/T boundary event,
apparently one of Earth’s polar regions has shielded. This emphasizes the
likelihood that the event was of distant origin and global extent, rather
than terrestrial origin and concentrated mainly in one area (as for a single
major impact such as the Chicxulub crater formation in the Yucatan).
Mars May Be a Former Moon of a Now-Exploded Planet
Evidence
that Mars is a former moon
- Mars is much less massive than any
planet not itself suspected of being a former moon
- Orbit of Mars is more elliptical
than for any larger-mass planet
- Spin is slower than larger
planets, except where a massive moon has intervened
- Large offset of center of figure
from center of mass
- Shape not in equilibrium with spin
- Southern hemisphere is saturated
with craters, the northern has sparse cratering
- The “crustal dichotomy”
boundary is nearly a great circle
- North hemisphere has a smooth,
1-km-thick crust; south crust is over 20-km thick
- Crustal thickness in south
decreases gradually toward hemisphere edges
- Lobate scarps occur near
hemisphere divide, compressed perpendicular to boundary
- Huge volcanoes arose where uplift pressure from mass redistribution is
maximal
- A sudden geographic pole shift of
order 90° occurred
- Much of the original atmosphere
has been lost
- A sudden, massive flood with no
obvious source occurred
- Xe129, a fission product of massive explosions, has an excess
abundance on Mars
The above summarizes evidence that Mars was not an original planet, but
rather a moon of a now-exploded planet occupying that approximate orbit.
Many of these points are the expected consequences of having a massive
planet blow up nearby, thereby blasting the facing hemisphere and leaving
the shielded hemisphere relatively unscathed. Especially significant in this
regard is the fact that half of Mars is saturated with craters, and half is
only sparsely cratered. Moreover, the crustal thickness has apparently been
augmented over one hemisphere by up to 20 km or so, gradually tapering off
near the hemisphere boundaries. This “crustal dichotomy” is also readily
seen in Martian elevation maps, such as in Figure
7.
Figure
7.
Mars crustal dichotomy. Cratered highlands (white), lowland plains
(shaded). Left: western hemisphere, 180° à
0°. Right: eastern hemisphere, 360° à
180°. From Christiansen & Hamblin (1995). [x]
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The Original Solar System
Putting all this evidence together, we have strong hints for two
original planets near what is now the main asteroid belt: hypothetical
“Planet V” and “Planet K”. These were probably gas giant planets
with moons of significant size, such as Mars, before they exploded. We have
hints of two more asteroid belts, probably from the explosions of two more
planets (“Planet T” and “Planet X”) beyond Neptune. And we have
hints for two extra-large gas giant planets, “Planet A” and “Planet
B”, that exploded back near the solar system beginning.
Of the existing nine major planets today, we have strong evidence
that Mercury is an escaped moon of Venus [xi],
Mars is an escaped moon of Planet V, and Pluto and its moon Charon are
escaped moons of Neptune [xii].
If we eliminate these, then perhaps the original solar system consisted of
12 planets arranged in 6 “twin” pairs. Such an arrangement would be
consistent with origin of all major planets and moons by the fission
process. [xiii]
This model makes a major prediction that will soon be tested: Extrasolar
planets should arise in twin pairs also, with 2-to-1 orbital period
resonances common. If so, then many cases that now appear to be single
massive planets on highly elliptical orbits will turn out, when enough
observations are accumulated, to be twin resonant planets on near-circular
orbits.
Planetary Explosion Mechanisms
The most frequently asked question about the eph is “What would
cause a planet to explode?” We will mention three theoretical conjectures,
although in-depth work must await a wider recognition of the phenomenon in
the field at large.
The earliest and simplest theoretical mechanism is that of Ramsey [xiv],
who noted that planets must evolve through a wide range of pressures and
temperatures. This is true whether they are born cold and heat up under
gravitational accretion, or born hot and cool down by radiation of heat into
space. During the course of this evolution, temperatures and pressures in
the cores must occasionally reach a critical point, at which a phase change
(like water to ice) occurs. This will be accompanied by a volume
discontinuity, which must then cause an Earth-sized or smaller planet to
implode or explode, depending on whether the volume decreases or increases.
The second explosion mechanism, natural fission
reactors, is currently generating some excitement in the field of geology. [xv]
A uranium mine at Oklo in the Republic of Gabon is deficient in U-235 and is
accompanied by fission-produced isotopes of Nd and Sm, apparently caused by
self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions about 1.8 Gyr ago. Later, other
natural fission chain reactors were discovered in the region. Today, uranium
ore does not have this capability because the proportion of U-235 in natural
uranium is too low. But 1.8 Gyr ago, the proportion was more than four times
greater, allowing the self-sustaining neutron chain reactions. Additionally,
these areas also functioned as fast neutron breeder reactors, producing
additional fissile material in the form of plutonium and other trans-uranic
elements. Breeding fissile material results in possible reactor operation
continuing long after the U-235 proportion in natural uranium would have
become too low to sustain neutron chain reactions. This proves the existence
of an energy source in nature able to produce more than an order of
magnitude more energy than radioactive decay alone. Excess planetary heat
radiation is said to be gravitational in origin because all other proposed
energy sources (e.g., radioactivity, accretion, and thermonuclear fusion)
fall short by at least two orders of magnitude. But these natural reactors
may be able to supply the needed energy. Indeed, nuclear fission chain
reactions may provide the ignition temperature to set off thermonuclear
reactions in stars (analogous to ignition of thermonuclear bombs).
The third planetary explosion mechanism relies on one other
hypothesis not yet widely accepted, but holds out the potential for an
indefinitely large reservoir of energy for exploding even massive planets
and stars. If gravitational fields are continually regenerated, as in LeSage
particle models of gravity [xvi],
then all masses are continually absorbing energy from this universal flux.
Normally, bodies would reach a thermodynamic equilibrium, whereat they
radiate as much heat away as they continually absorb from the graviton flux.
But something could block this heat flow and disrupt the equilibrium. For
example, changes of state in a planet’s core might set up an insulating
layer. In that case, heat would continue to be accumulated from graviton
impacts, but could not freely radiate away. This is obviously an unstable
situation. The energy excess in the interior of such a planet would build
indefinitely until either the insulating layer was breached or the planet
blew itself apart.
Conclusion
We have covered most of the successful predictions of
the exploded planet hypothesis mentioned in the abstract: (1) satellites of
asteroids; (2) satellites of comets; (4) “roll marks” leading to
boulders on asteroids; (6) explosion signatures for asteroids; (7) strongly
spiked energy parameter for new comets; (8) distribution of black material
on slowly rotating airless bodies; (9) splitting velocities of comets; (10)
Mars is a former moon of an exploded planet. Two additional successes and
one additional new prediction will be mentioned briefly here.
Abstract
(3): salt water in meteorites. This refers to an obvious corollary of the
eph, never explicitly put in writing in so many words. If meteorites come
from the explosion of planet-sized bodies, the water from such bodies can be
ocean water (as on Earth and as suspected for Jupiter’s moon Europa), and
would therefore be expected to contain salt from run-off of minerals from
solid portions of the planet. Only recently has meteorite water been tested
for salt content for the first time, with the surprising result that sodium
chloride was found. [xvii]
Certain aspects of this discovery suggest that water was flowing on the
parent body from which the meteorite came. ’The existence of a
water-soluble salt in this meteorite is astonishing,” wrote R.N. Clayton
of the University of Chicago in the reference cited. True, unless one had
the exploded planet hypothesis in mind.
Supplementing
the idea of salt water in meteorites, we did explicitly predict salt water
in comets. [xviii]
“In March, a long sodium tail was discovered in Comet Hale-Bopp. Aside
from the general interest in this new type of comet tail, it was noted that
the sodium ions have a half-life of just half a day, too short to survive a
trip from the nucleus to the farthest parts of the tail. So the sodium must
be conveyed as part of a parent molecule that is split by the solar wind
into sodium and some other ions. The significance of this for comet models
is that the exploded planet hypothesis says that comets originated in the
explosion of a water-bearing planet. If that planetary water was salt water,
as planetary oceans on Earth all tend to be, then water in comets would be
salt water. The parent molecule for the salt escaping the comet’s coma
into the tail would be sodium chloride (salt), and the “other ions”
would be chlorine ions. The unknown parent molecule has not yet been
officially discovered. But one can readily see that the discovery of
chlorine in comets to go along with this discovery of sodium would make a
strong case for the planetary origin scenario.”
Abstract (5): the time and peak rate of the 1999
Leonid meteor storm. Esko Lyytinen of Finland used the exploded planet
hypothesis as a model for understanding and predicting the behavior of
meteor storms. These had never before been successfully predicted. Although
nearly a dozen professional astronomers attempted predictions for the
possible November 1999 storm, only three teams had results that were correct
for the time of the event, and only Lyytinen had both the time and the peak
meteor rate correct to within the stated error bars. The complete story of
this prediction, the expedition, and its successful conclusion are beyond
the scope of this paper, but may be found in the reference. [xix]
With the documented track record the eph has now established, it is
small wonder that professional astronomers are no longer willing to make
wagers with eph proponents about the outcome of either recent or future eph
predictions. But sadly, research funding is still being poured almost
exclusively into competitor theories.
[i]
T. Van Flandern (1978), “A former asteroidal planet as the origin of
comets”, Icarus 36, 51-74.
[ii]
Z. Sekanina (1999), “Detection of a satellite orbiting the nucleus of
Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1)”, Earth, Moon & Planets in
press.
[iii]
T. Van Flandern (1993; 2nd edition 1999), Dark Matter,
Missing Planets and New Comets, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley,
215-236; 178.
[iv]
T. Van Flandern (1992), “Minor satellites and the Gaspra encounter”,
Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991, LPI, Houston, 609-612.
[v]
3671 Dionysus (1997), Sci.News 152, 200; 45 Eugenia
(1999), Science 284, 1099-1101.
[vi]
T. Van Flandern (1999), “Status of ‘the NEAR challenge’”,
MetaRes.Bull. 8, 31-32. Also at <http://metaresearch.org>.
[vii]
T. LeDuin, A.C. Levasseur-Rigourd & J.B. Renard (1993), “Dust and
gas brightness profiles in the Grigg-Skjellerup coma from OPE/Giotto”,
in Abstracts for IAU Symposium 160: Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1993,
Belgirate (Navara) Italy, 182.
[viii]
E. Marchis, H. Bochnhardt, O.R. Hainaut & D. Le Mignant (1999),
“Adaptive optics observations of the innermost coma of C/1995 O1: Are
there a ‘Hale’ and a ‘Bopp’ in comet Hale-Bopp?”, Astron.Astrophys.
349, 985-995.
[ix]
P.R. Weissman (1989), “The impact history of the solar system:
implications for the origin of atmospheres," in Origin
and Evolution of Planetary and Satellite Atmospheres, S.K. Atreya,
J.B. Pollack, and M.S. Matthews, eds., Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson,
247-249.
[x]
E.H. Christiansen & W.K. Hamblin (1995), Exploring the Planets,
2nd ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 144.
[xi]
T.C. Van Flandern & R.S. Harrington (1976), “A dynamical
investigation of the conjecture that Mercury is an escaped satellite of
Venus”, Icarus 28, 435-440.
[xii]
R.S. Harrington & T.C. Van Flandern (1979), “The satellites of
Neptune and the origin of Pluto”, Icarus 39, 131-136.
[xiii]
T. Van Flandern (1997), “The original solar system”, MetaRes.Bull.
6, 17-29. See also <http://metaresearch.org>.
[xiv]
W.H. Ramsey (1950), “On the instability of small planetary cores
(I)”, Mon.Not.Roy.Astr.Soc. 110, 325-338.
[xv]
(1998), EOS 79 (9/22), 451 & 456. See also <http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/centre/waisrc/OKLO/index.shtml>.
[xvi]
T. Van Flandern (1996), “Possible new properties of gravity”, Astrophys.&SpaceSci.
244, 249-261.
[xvii]
(1999), Science 285, 1364-1365 & 1377-1379:
[xviii]
T. Van Flandern (1997), “Comet Hale-Bopp update”, MetaRes.Bull.
6, 29-32: [The author gratefully acknowledges Richard Hoagland of
the Enterprise Mission for this argument.]
[xix]
E. Lyytinen (1999), “Leonid predictions for the years 1999-2007 with
the satellite model of comets”, MetaRes.Bull. 8, 33-40; T. Van
Flandern (1999), “1999 Leonid meteor storm – How the predictions
fared”, MetaRes.Bull. 8, 59-63.
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