Phaeton (hypothetical planet)

Phaeton (hypothetical planet)
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 the asteroid belt. The hypothetical planet was named for Phaëton, the son of the sun god Helios in Greek mythology, who attempted to drive his father's solar chariot for a day with disastrous results and was ultimately destroyed by Zeus.

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

Contents

The Phaeton hypothesis

According to the now-discredited 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 (now considered a dwarf planet), 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.

Theories regarding the formation of the asteroid belt from the destruction of a hypothetical fifth planet are today 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.
  • it was destroyed by a hypothetical brown dwarf, the companion star to the Sun known as Nemesis.
  • it was shattered by some internal catastrophe.

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.

Today, the Phaeton hypothesis has been superseded by the accretion model.[citation needed] Most astronomers today 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.

Fringe theories

The hypothesis continues to be advocated by some non-scientists. 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. However, his work is widely regarded as pseudoscience.

In 1988, Donald W. Patten wrote a book entitled Catastrophism and the Old Testament outlining the theory that a planet he called Astra overtook Mars and, upon reaching the Roche limit, broke apart much like the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 did when it reached Jupiter's Roche limit in 1994.[citation needed]

In UFO and channelling related sources, and in the Ascended Master Teachings, a group of religions based on Theosophy, Phaeton is referred to as Maldek.[1]

Phaeton in literature

See also

Sources

Books

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.  – 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.

References

  1. ^ Don Elkins, Carla Rueckert, James Allen McCarty. The Ra Material: An Ancient Astronaut Speaks (The Law of One , No 1). Donning Company Publishers, 1984. ISBN 9780898652604. amazon.com. Retrieved on December 26, 2008.

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Phaeton — Phaeton, Phaëton, Phaethon, or Phaëthon may refer to:*Phaëton, in Greek mythology, either the son of Helios, the sun god; or son of Eos, the Dawn Goddess *Phaeton, fictional villainous leader of the Neosapiens in the animated television series… …   Wikipedia

  • Planet V — is a hypothetical fifth planet hypothesized by NASA scientists John Chambers and Jack Lissauer to have once existed between Mars and the asteroid belt, based on computer simulations. Chambers and Lissauer presented this idea during the 33rd Lunar …   Wikipedia

  • Fifth planet (hypothetical) — In the history of astronomy, a handful of solar system bodies have been counted as the fifth planet from the Sun. Under the present definition of a planet, this celestial body is Jupiter. Contents 1 Previous fifth planets 1.1 Asteroids 1.2 Th …   Wikipedia

  • List of hypothetical planetary objects — A hypothetical planetary object is a planet, natural satellite or similar body whose existence is not known, but has been inferred from observational scientific evidence. Over the years a number of hypothetical planets have been proposed, and… …   Wikipedia

  • Fictional planets of the Solar System — The fictional portrayal of our Solar System has often included planets, moons, and other celestial objects which do not actually exist in reality. Some of these objects were, at one time, seriously considered as hypothetical planets which were… …   Wikipedia

  • Mythological places — A mythological place (also called mythical place ) is a place that a particular culture describes in their mythology and folklore as existent, that might have existed in earlier times but its actual location is now lost. Unlike fictional places,… …   Wikipedia

  • List of cataclysms — The cataclysm is the Greek expression for the Biblical Great Flood of Noah, from the Greek kataklysmos , to wash down. Erudite Bible studies drew it into the English language in 1633. A cataclysm is merely one kind of catastrophe , best used when …   Wikipedia

  • Doomsday device — This article is about the theoretical world ending destruction. For the professional wrestling maneuver, see Doomsday Device. Doomsday machine redirects here. For other uses, see Doomsday machine (disambiguation). Many hypothetical doomsday… …   Wikipedia

  • Astronomical naming conventions — In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few hundred stars and the most easily visible planets had names. Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are… …   Wikipedia

  • Lost lands — are continents, islands or other regions believed by some to have existed during prehistory, but to have since disappeared as a result of catastrophic geological phenomena or slowly rising sea levels since the end of the last Ice Age. Lost lands …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”