Phaeton (hypothetical planet)

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Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers, who formulated the planet Phaeton hypothesis
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers, who formulated the planet Phaeton hypothesis

Phaeton (or Phaëton, less often Phaethon) is the name of a hypothetical planet posited to once have existed between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter whose destruction supposedly led to the formation of asteroid belt. In Greek mythology, Phaëton, the son of the sun god Helios, attempted to drive his father's solar chariot for a day with disastrous results and was destroyed by Zeus.

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[edit] The Phaeton hypothesis

According to the so-called Titius-Bode law, a planet was believed to exist between Mars and Jupiter. Johann Elert Bode himself urged a search for the fifth planet. When Ceres, the largest of the asteroids in the asteroid belt, was found in 1801 at the predicted position of the fifth planet, many believed it was the missing planet. However, in 1802 astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovered and named another object in the same general orbit as Ceres, the asteroid Pallas.

Olbers proposed that these new discoveries were the fragments of a disrupted planet that had formerly revolved around the sun. He also predicted that more of these pieces would be found. The discovery of the asteroid Juno by Karl Ludwig Harding and Vesta by Olbers buttressed the Olbers hypothesis. Most astronomers today, however, believe that the asteroids in the main belt are remnants of the protoplanetary disk, and in this region the incorporation of protoplanetary remnants into the planets was prevented by large gravitational perturbations induced by Jupiter during the formative period of the solar system.

In the twentieth century, Russian meteoriticist Yevgeny Leonidovich Krinov (involved in the investigation of the Tunguska event), suggested that the exploded planet in the Olbers theory be named Phaeton after the story in Greek myth.

[edit] Planet Phaeton today

Today, the Phaeton hypothesis has been largely discarded by the scientific community, after it was superseded by the accretion model. This, currently the most popular explanation of the solar system's formation, states that the solar system was formed out of a vast cloud of dust and gas which gradually developed a rotary motion and condensed by attraction. The asteroid belt, in this way of thinking, can be regarded as remnants of a planet that never quite formed due to the gravitational interference of Jupiter.

The theories today regarding the formation of the asteroid belt from the destruction of a hypothetical fifth planet are usually collectively referred to as the disruption theory. This theory states that there was once a major planetary member of the solar system circulating in the present gap between Mars and Jupiter, which was variously destroyed when:

  • it veered too close to Jupiter and was torn apart by the gas giant's powerful gravity.
  • it was struck by another large celestial body, usually termed Nibiru.
  • it was destroyed by a hypothetical brown dwarf, the companion star to the Sun known as Nemesis.
  • it was shattered by some great internal catastrophe, as with the fictional Krypton.

The theory is most popular today with fringe scientists and creationists (see the external links section below). These supporters argue that high (or low) velocity colliding particles would not stick together as required by the accretion model, and point to the common sense idea that dissipation rather than accretion is more in keeping with known physical laws.

One notable proponent is Zecharia Sitchin, who has proposed, based on his reading of ancient Sumerian mythology, that the planet known to the Sumerians as Tiamat was destroyed by a rogue planet known as Nibiru.

3200 Phaethon, sometimes incorrectly spelled Phaeton, shares Phaeton's name. 3200 Phaethon is a Mercury-, Venus-, and Mars- orbit crossing Apollo asteroid with unusual properties.

[edit] Phaeton in literature

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

[edit] Books

  • This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. - see, for instance, "Olbers," Britannica
  • Christy-Vitale, Joseph (2004). Watermark: The Disaster That Changed the World and Humanity 12,000 Years Ago. New York: Simon and Schuster. 
  • McSween, Harry Y. (2004). Meteorites and Their Parent Planets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , p. 35.
  • Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. New York Academy of Sciences. , Records of meetings 1808-1916 in v. 11-27, p. 872.

[edit] External links

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