The science

The planet Neptune used to be also classified as hypothetical; it had never been seen, but its existence was assumed.

In fact, scientists have assumed and continue to assume the existence of more planets.

Some fall off this list over time, others may have actually existed in the past, and probably even still exist today.

10. Planet X

In the early 1800s, astronomers knew of the existence of all the major planets in our solar system except Neptune. They were also familiar with Newton's laws of motion and gravity, which were used to predict the movements of planets.

When correlating these predictions with the actual observed movement, it was noticed that Uranus did not "go" where it was predicted. Then the French astronomer Alexis Bouvard asked the question: could the gravity of an invisible planet shift Uranus from its intended course.

After the discovery of Neptune in 1846, many astronomers decided to test whether its gravitational force was strong enough to explain the observed motion of Uranus. The answer turned out to be negative.

Perhaps there is another invisible planet? The existence of a ninth planet has been proposed by many astronomers. The most meticulous searcher for the ninth planet was the American astronomer Percival Lowell, who named the wanted object “Planet X”.

Lowell built an observatory with the goal of finding Planet X, but never found it. 14 years after his death, astronomers discovered Pluto, but its gravitational force was also not strong enough to explain the observed movement of Uranus, so The scientific world continued to search for Planet X.

The search continued until Voyager 2 passed Neptune in 1989. It was then discovered that Neptune's mass had been measured incorrectly. Updated mass calculations explain Uranus' motion.

Unknown planet

9. Planet between Mars and Jupiter

In the 16th century, Johannes Kepler noticed the existence of a huge gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. He assumed that there maybe a planet, but didn’t bother looking for her.

After Kepler, many astronomers began to notice patterns in the orbits of planets. The approximate sizes of the orbits from Mercury to Saturn are 4, 7, 10, 16, 52, 100. If you subtract 4 from each of these numbers, you get 0, 3, 6, 12, 48 and 96.

It is noteworthy that 6 =3+3, 12=6+6, 96=48+48. Between 12 and 48 there remains a strange emptiness.

Astronomers were puzzled by the question of whether they had missed a planet, which, according to calculations, should be located between Mars and Jupiter. As the German astronomer Elert Bode wrote: “After Mars, a huge space was discovered in which not a single planet had yet been identified. Can we believe that the founder of the Universe left this space empty? Of course not".

When Uranus was discovered in 1781, the size of its orbit fit neatly into the pattern described above. This seemed like a law of nature, which later became known as Bode's law or Titius-Bode's law, however, the notorious gap between Mars and Jupiter still remained.

Elert Bode

A Hungarian astronomer named Baron Franz von Zach also became convinced that Bode's law works, which means that There is an undiscovered planet between Mars and Jupiter.

He spent several years searching, but never found anything. In 1800, he organized a group of several astronomers who systematically carried out research. One of them was the Italian Catholic priest Giuseppe Piazzi, who in 1801 discovered an object whose orbit exactly the same size.

However, the object named Ceres, turned out to be too small to be called a planet. In fact, Ceres was considered an asteroid for many years because it was the largest in the main asteroid belt.

Today, Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, as is Pluto. It is worth adding that Bode's law stopped working when Neptune was found because the size of its orbit did not fit the accepted pattern.

Galaxy: unknown planets

8. Theia

Theia is the name given to a hypothetical, Mars-sized planet that likely collided with Earth about 4.4 billion years ago, possibly resulting in the formation of the Moon. It is believed that the name of the planet was given by the English geochemist Alex Halliday. This was the name of the mythological Greek titan who gave life to the moon goddess Selene.

It is worth noting that the origin and formation of the Moon is still unknown. the subject of active scientific discussion. While the above story is the main version (Giant Impact Hypothesis), it is not the only one.

Perhaps the moon was somehow "captured" by the Earth's gravitational field. Or maybe the Earth and the Moon formed in pairs at about the same time. It is important to add that the Earth, at the very beginning of its formation, probably suffered from collisions with many large celestial bodies.

7. Vulcan

Uranus was not the only planet whose observed motion did not match predictions. Another planet had such a problem - Mercury.

The discrepancy was first discovered by mathematician Urban Le Verrier, who discovered that the lowest point in Mercury's elliptical orbit (perihelion) was moving around the Sun faster than his calculations showed.

The discrepancy was minor, but additional observations showed that the mathematician was right. He suggested that the discrepancies are caused by the gravitational field of an undiscovered planet orbiting within Mercury's orbit, which he named Vulcan.

Urban Le Verrier

This was followed by numerous "observations" of Vulcan. Some observations turned out to be simply sunspots, but there were others made by respected astronomers that seemed plausible.

When Le Verrier died in 1877, he believed that Vulcan's existence confirmed. However, in 1915, Einstein's general theory of relativity was published, and it turned out that Mercury's motion was predicted correctly.

The volcano disappeared, but people continued to look for objects orbiting the Sun inside the orbit of Mercury. Of course, there is nothing “planet-like” there, but asteroid-sized objects that have been called “live” there may well “live” volcanoids."

6. Phaeton

German astronomer and physician Heinrich Olbers discovered the second known asteroid, named Pallas, in 1802. He suggested that the two asteroids found could be fragments of an ancient planet, which was destroyed under the influence of some internal forces or during a collision with a comet.

It was implied that there were more objects besides Ceres and Pallas, and indeed, two more were soon discovered - Juno in 1804 and Vesta in 1807.

The planet that supposedly broke up to form the main asteroid belt became known as Phaeton, named after the character in Greek mythology who drove the sun chariot.

However, the Phaeton hypothesis ran into problems. For example, the sum of the masses of all main belt asteroids is much less than the mass of the planet. In addition, there are many differences between asteroids. How could they come from the same "parent"?

Today, most planetary scientists believe that asteroids form due to the gradual sticking together of small fragments.

The unknown in space

5. Planet V

This is another hypothetical planet between Mars and Jupiter, but the reasons why it is believed to have once existed are completely different from the above.

The story begins with the Apollo mission to the moon. The Apollo astronauts brought many moon rocks to Earth, some of which were formed by the melting of rocks during the period when something like an asteroid collided with the Moon and generated enough heat to melt the stone.

Scientists have used radiometric dating to reveal when these rocks cooled. They concluded that the coldest period is approximately 3.8 - 4 billion years ago.

It appears that many comets and asteroids collided with the Moon during this period of time. This period is known as the "Late Heavy Bombardment" (LTB). "Late" because it happened after most of the others.

Previously, collisions in the solar system occurred with enviable regularity, but now time has passed. In this regard, the question arises: what happened to the temporarily increased number of asteroids hitting the Moon?

About 10 years ago, John Chambers and Jack J. Lissauer suggested that the cause may have been a long-lost planet they called " Planet V".

According to their theory, Planet V was between the orbit of Mars and the main asteroid belt before the gravity of the inner planets forced Planet V into the asteroid belt, where it threw off the trajectories of many of them, ultimately leading to their collision with Moon.

It is also assumed that Planet V collided with the Sun. This hypothesis has been met with criticism because not everyone agrees that a PTB occurred, but even if it did, there must be other possible explanations other than the presence of Planet V.

4. Fifth gas giant

Another explanation for the PTB is the so-called Nice model, named after the French city where it was first developed. According to this model, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are outer gas giants– originated in small orbits surrounded by a cloud of asteroid-sized objects.

Over time, some of these smaller objects passed near gas giants. Such close encounters contributed to the expansion orbits of the gas giants, although at a very slow pace.

Jupiter's orbit actually became smaller. At some point, the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn entered into resonance, as a result of which Jupiter began to revolve around the Sun twice, while Saturn had time only once. This caused chaos.

By solar system standards, everything happened very quickly. The nearly circular orbits of Jupiter and Saturn tightened, and Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune collided several times. The cloud of small objects was also agitated.

In total this led to PTB. After everything passed, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune “acquired” the orbits that they have to this day.

This model can also be used to describe other features of the solar system, such as the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, however, the original model does not explain everything. It needs modification.

First disappeared planet Phaethon mentioned in the notes of Johannes Kepler. He outlined his thoughts on this matter back in 1596. Finding out where is the planet Phaethon?, he became interested in the "empty space" between Mars and Jupiter. Subsequently, many scientists carried out calculations, research, and put forward hypotheses about the fate of this celestial body. Let us next consider some theories related to the existence and death of the planet Phaeton.

Titius-Bode rule

It was established in 1766. The German astronomer I. Titius was looking for the harmony of the arrangement of the planets. In the course of his research, he derived a numerical pattern for the distances of celestial bodies from the Sun. The rule looks like this: Rcp = 0.4 + (0.3 x 2n) astronomical units. One a. e. equal to 150 million km. For Mercury n= (-1), for Venus - 0, and for Earth - 1. According to calculations, there should have been another body No. 5 between Mars and Jupiter. In 1781, W. Herschel (English astronomer) discovered Uranus. At the same time, its distance from the Sun differed slightly from the indicator predicted by the Titius-Bode formula. This circumstance significantly increased the confidence of 18th century researchers in the laws about astronomical units. As a result, in 1796, at the congress in Gotha, scientists decided to begin a search for the disappeared planet.

Ancient Sumerians

As is known, this is the most advanced civilization of the early stage of Earth’s development. Scientists suggest that the ancient Sumerians knew about the existence of Uranus (Anu), Neptune (Ea), and also Pluto (Taga). This is indicated by the texts of clay tablets created 6 thousand years ago, deciphered by modern experts. Sumerian records also mention Phaeton - planet of the solar system Tiamat, located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. As the texts of the tablets testify, this celestial body was destroyed during a cosmic catastrophe.

Opening

Planet Phaeton, more precisely, the remains of a celestial body, was first discovered in 1801 in Palermo by D. Piazzi. In the process of compiling a star map in the area of ​​the constellation Taurus, he became interested in a point that was not marked in the catalogs. Its movement was directed in the opposite direction relative to the rotation of the sky, like other bodies in the system. K. Gauss calculated the orbit of the discovered planet. Calculations showed that it was located between Jupiter and Mars exactly at the distance derived from the Titius-Bode formula. The celestial body was named Ceres. Over time, several new planets were discovered. So, in 1802 Olbers discovered Pallas, in 1807 - Vesta, in 1804 Harding established the location of Juno. All these bodies moved at approximately the same distance from the Sun as Ceres (about 240 million km). These data allowed Olbers to put forward the assumption in 1804 that these small planets are elements of one large one, torn into pieces. It was located at a distance of 2.8 a. e. from the Sun. This planet was given the name Phaethon.

Asteroids

By 1891, 320 small bodies had been discovered. Exploring the space between Jupiter and Mars, scientists came to the conclusion that a huge cluster of asteroids rotates in this place of the system. They are all remnants of one large celestial body. It is worth saying that even today new asteroids are periodically discovered. To date, about 40 thousand small bodies have been discovered. Orbits have been calculated for more than 3.5 thousand of them. Scientists suggest that the total number of asteroids with a diameter greater than 1.5 km may be more than 500 thousand. Between Jupiter and Mars, astronomers detect only large bodies. Small ones, under the influence of gravitational forces of nearby planets and as a result of collisions, leave the observation area. Their total number is in the billions. Some of the asteroids reach Earth.

Dimensions

The mass of known asteroids is 1/700-1/1000 of the weight of the Earth. The belt between Jupiter and Mars may contain several billion as yet undiscovered bodies. Moreover, their size varies from tens of kilometers to dust particles. About the same number of asteroids came out of the belt, according to scientists. Calculations performed by Siegel using parameters of the hypothetical density and mass of asteroidal matter showed that the planet Phaeton could have a diameter of 6880 km. This value is slightly larger than that of Mars. Similar figures are also present in the works of some foreign and domestic researchers. There are suggestions that the planet Phaeton is comparable in size to the Moon. In this case, its diameter is about 3500 km.

The death of the planet Phaeton

There is no consensus on the time of destruction of the celestial body. Scientists give different dates, including 3.7-3.8 billion, 110, 65, 16 million, 25 and 12 thousand years. Each of these dates is associated with certain disasters that took place in geological history. From the probable moments of destruction of the planet, scientists exclude 25 and 12 thousand years. This is explained by the fact that in the images of the asteroid Eros, which were obtained by the NIAR Shoemaker probe, a layer of regolith is clearly visible. Almost everywhere it overlaps bedrock. At the bottom of the craters, the regolith reaches great thickness. Taking into account the very slow rate of formation of the layer, we can conclude that the age of the asteroids cannot be less than several million years. A date of 3.7-3.8 billion years is considered unlikely. This is explained by the fact that the proportion of carbonaceous formations in the asteroid belt is too large for this age. The dates of 110 and 65 million years are associated with the period of great catastrophes on Earth. The last figure, in particular, refers to the death of dinosaurs. These dates are justified only by the fact that they allegedly allow us to describe the origin of asteroids that collided with the Earth in ancient times. Meanwhile, many scientists agree that, most likely, the planet Phaeton was destroyed 16 million years ago.

Scientific background

In one of his articles, A.V. Koltypin talks about the Yamato meteorite discovered in 2000. It was found in the mountains of Antarctica. The age of the surface layers of the meteorite is 16 million years. They show traces of powerful dynamic stress. By analyzing the gas composition of inclusions and the atmosphere of Mars, scientists classified Yamato as one of 20 Martian meteorites. Based on these data, Koltypin suggested that a catastrophe could have occurred on the Red Planet 16 million years ago. If we assume that the atmosphere of Mars was similar to the shell that it has l Phaethon, planet of the solar system, as Koltypin believes, exploded, and fragments began to attack the nearest celestial body. Accordingly, it became Mars. This attack led to the death of life on it. This conclusion can only be drawn if we assume that Yamoto is a fragment of Phaeton, and not a Martian meteorite.

Theories of existence

Before talking about the reasons why the planet Phaeton collapsed (photos of the disaster are modeled today in different versions), you should understand whether it really happened. As mentioned above, the Sumerians mention the celestial body. From their records it follows that the planet Tiamat exists in the system. This body split into two parts as a result of a terrible cosmic catastrophe. One fragment moved to another orbit, becoming the Earth (according to another version, the Moon). The second part continued to collapse and formed an asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. It is worth saying that Phaeton was recognized from the end of the 18th century until 1944 - until the appearance of Schmidt’s hypothesis about the formation of bodies from a meteorite cloud captured by the Sun and flying through it. According to this theory, asteroids are not debris, but the material of an unformed object. Meanwhile, a number of accounting experts believe that this hypothesis has more historical than scientific value. It is likely that this concept, like a number of other similar theories, formed the basis of fantastic works of art. For example, it may be mentioned known book by a Soviet writer about the planet Phaeton(A. Kazantsev “Faetians”). In it, the author talks about the destruction of a celestial body. Briefly, book about the planet Phaeton talks about a nuclear explosion. The surviving inhabitants of the celestial body are settling throughout space. After a million years, their descendants meet on Earth. Several thousand years later, a space expedition discovers a dying civilization, the home of which was planet Phaethon. Book ends with earthlings rearranging Mars for the life of its representatives.

Causes of destruction

Many hypotheses have been put forward regarding the circumstances of the death of the planet. Opinions are expressed by both scientists and science fiction writers. Among all the options, three main ones can be distinguished. One of the reasons is considered to be the gravitational influence of Jupiter when Phaeton is dangerously close to it. The second hypothesis involves the explosion of the body as a result of its own internal activity. According to the third version, Phaeton collided with another planet. Other versions of the destruction have also been put forward. For example, some authors suggest that the body collided with its own satellite or an object consisting of antimatter.

Cinema

There is currently no consensus on how it collapsed planet Phaethon. Documentary Many people decided to film about the disaster. The plots were based on information obtained from scientific observations. The most plausible version of destruction is considered to be a collision with another body. It could have been a large comet or a huge asteroid. The existence of the latter is proven by repeated collisions with the Earth in early geological periods, even before it collapsed planet Phaethon. Movie 1972 directed by V. Livanov is based on the myth of the existence of an ancient civilization, which was discovered by earthlings during the exploration of the asteroid belt.

Presence of life

Some authors put forward a hypothesis about a man-made disaster on the planet. The presence of life is evidenced by the findings of fossilized bacteria in meteorites. They are similar to cyanobacteria that live in hot springs and rocks on Earth. They probably appeared in the asteroid belt. The presence of a large number of carbonaceous asteroids, evidence that some of them are formed by sedimentary rocks, allows us to conclude that the accumulation of sediments on Phaethon could have occurred over a long period of time. It could be hundreds of millions or several billions of years. Most of the precipitation on Earth accumulates in bodies of water. It is logical that oceans and seas also existed on Phaeton. Accordingly, highly organized forms of life could develop. Today it is not possible to establish for certain whether there were intelligent beings on the planet Phaeton.

"Mars Theory"

Many works by scientists substantiate the likelihood of the existence of a civilization on Mars. The inhabitants of this planet waged a fierce struggle with each other, defending themselves from asteroids with various weapons, including nuclear ones. The authors suggest that some representatives of the Martian civilization moved to Earth before the disaster or immediately after it. This leads researchers to believe that they could wage interplanetary wars with intelligent representatives of celestial bodies located in the neighborhood. Probably, the object that existed in the space between Jupiter and Mars was destroyed by representatives of the latter. However, as the authors conclude, the attack on Phaeton led to a more global disaster than expected.

Potentially dangerous bodies

In 1937, the Hermes asteroid passed at a distance of about 580,000 kilometers from Earth. In 1996, another dangerous convergence occurred. Now the slightly smaller asteroid 1996 JA1 has passed 450 thousand km from the planet. Today, 31 dangerous bodies with a diameter of more than a kilometer have been discovered. Each of them has its own name. The sizes of the bodies vary from 1 to 8 km. Five of these objects orbit between Earth and Mars, the rest - between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists suggest that out of 40 thousand small bodies in the asteroid belt, the diameter of which is more than 1 km, up to 2000 may be potentially dangerous. Their collisions with the Earth are quite likely, although with rather long time intervals. Researchers believe that once a century one of the bodies may fly near the Earth at a distance less than the Moon. Once every 250 years, an object may collide with a planet. An impact from a body the size of Hermes, for example, would release the energy of 10,000 hydrogen bombs, each with a yield of 10 megatons. This will create a crater with a diameter of about 20 km. Impacts from larger bodies will, of course, lead to more serious consequences.

However, scientists reassure humanity that such cases are unknown in recent history and are unlikely in the near future. Asteroid research is currently carried out by NEOPO. This special institution was created in 1997 by NASA. It manages the near-Earth object program. It was in it that, among small bodies, a group of elements whose orbits intersected the earth’s was identified. This indicates the likelihood of a potential collision of objects with our planet. The bodies of this group were called Apollo.

The dispute between supporters and opponents of the fifth planet has been going on for decades. In the 70-80s of the eighteenth century, German astronomers Titius and Bode empirically determined the rule of interplanetary distances. William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus. Its location in the solar system confirmed the open rule. However, the distance between Mars and Jupiter indicated that there must be another planet between these planets. And then on January 1, 1901, the Italian Giuseppe Piazzi noticed through a telescope a faint star, not noted in the catalogs. She moved against the rotation of the starry sky, like all the planets. The orbit of the discovered planet was determined by mathematician Carl Gauss. It turned out that this orbit lies between Mars and Jupiter. However, it was no longer possible to catch the planet in the telescope. The planet was named Ceres. A year later, astronomer Heinrich Olbers discovered Ceres. A couple of months later, he discovered another planet with a close orbit - Pallas. Then, over the course of 80 years, about 200 planets were discovered between Mars and Jupiter. Nowadays their number has exceeded four thousand. These celestial bodies are called small planets - asteroids. Olbers considered them to be fragments of a once existing fifth planet. They named her Phaeton. His hypothesis turned out to be so plausible that the existence of Phaeton was generally accepted until 1944, before the appearance of the cosmogonic theory of O.Yu. Schmidt about the formation of planets from a meteorite cloud captured by the Sun flying through it. According to Schmidt's theory, asteroids are not fragments of Phaeton, but the material of some unformed planet. Between Mars and Jupiter, astronomers observe only the largest asteroids. Small ones, under the influence of the gravitational forces of the planets, as well as as a result of collisions, leave this area. Their number is in the billions. Some of them reach the Earth. Studying fallen meteorites became the only way to find out whether the planet Phaeton existed. And recently the hypothesis about Phaeton received sensational confirmation. Using electron microscopes, paleontologists have discovered fossilized bacteria similar to those found on Earth in stony meteorites! They are similar to our cyanobacteria, which live in rocks and hot springs, feed on chemical reactions and do not need oxygen or sunlight. In other words, the meteorite substance was formed on a fairly large celestial body and there was life on it. Thus, the existence of Phaeton can be considered proven. Calculations of the mass of asteroids show that Phaeton was close in size to Mars. So why did the fifth planet die? Surprisingly, the Moon helped us find the answer to this question. Its surface still bears traces of the disaster. It was believed that the craters of the Moon, Mercury, Mars, and Venus are traces of collisions of preplanetary matter with growing planets. However, the analysis of lunar soil delivered by the Soviet Luna-10 spacecraft led to unexpected results. It turned out that the Moon was formed half a billion years before the start of the bombardment - the “lunar cataclysm.” Obviously, the cataclysm must have had some reason, and this reason could have been the destruction of Phaeton. So, four billion years ago, a lot of different sized debris filled the solar system. Leaving the orbit between Mars and Jupiter, they collided with the planets, leaving monstrous craters on their surface, sometimes hundreds of kilometers in size. Until now, scientists do not have a consensus on the reasons for the death of the fifth planet. Some believe that Phaeton was torn apart by centrifugal force due to too rapid daily rotation, others see the cause of the disaster in a collision with its own satellite or a dangerous approach to Jupiter. However, perhaps part of Phaeton survived and turned into one of the asteroids. Most likely, this is Ceres, the largest of the minor planets. Its diameter is 1003 km. And Piazzi was right, who believed that he had discovered the fifth planet. So, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter there is a mass of small bodies revolving around the Sun at the distance at which a large planet should be located, according to the Titius-Bode rule. The famous astronomer and physician Heinrich Olbers, who discovered Pallas and Vesta, suggested that there was once a planet in the place of the current asteroids. From a monstrous blow from the outside or from an internal blow, the planet exploded(!), leaving behind a legacy in the form of asteroids. This hypothetical planet was later named PHAETON, in honor of the son of the Sun god Helios. According to Greek mythology, Phaethon stole his fiery chariot from his father (Helios) and went to ride across the sky, but died, crashing along with the chariot. These were the first signs of the notorious ASTEROID DANGER for the Earth. Since Phaeton died from the explosion of a falling body, can the Earth suffer the same fate? However, in the 50s of the 20th century, the first but convincing objections, based on data on meteorites, appeared against Olbers' touching hypothesis about Phaeton. From analyzes of the composition of meteorites, it followed that they were heterogeneous in chemical composition and could not possibly be products of the destruction of a large planet like Earth or Mars, since then they would never be able to preserve their crystalline structure. In the depths of a massive planet, such a structure would inevitably be destroyed. More detailed studies have proven that meteorite matter could have formed and reached its present state only in celestial bodies of asteroid masses and sizes. The last argument in favor of the existence of Phaeton was made in the 70s of the last century. To do this, its hypothetical mass was calculated and it was shown that the destruction occurred about 16 million years ago. However, it turned out that the energy for the destruction of Phaeton is thousands and tens of thousands of times weaker than necessary. It remained to explain the destruction of the planet by the gravitational influence of Jupiter. It turned out that a close approach to this giant could lead to the destruction of Phaeton! But... As always, but! If such a rapprochement had occurred, it would have been disastrous for Phaethon, but Jupiter himself would have suffered greatly. The system of its Galilean satellites would have been altered by disturbances to such an extent that even the giant Jupiter would have spent 2 billion years restoring it! But, as stated above, the disaster occurred no more than 16 million years ago. And another argument is not in favor of Phaeton. The fall of large asteroid fragments onto the Earth results in the formation of craters on its surface. Our planet stores on its body many giant cosmic wounds called astroblemes. On the territory of Russia, the largest astrobleme was discovered near the mouth of the Popigai River in northern Siberia. Research has shown (here it comes, the fun begins!) that the astrobleme arose during the fall of an asteroid with a diameter of SEVERAL KILOMETERS (!) 30 MILLION years ago. At the same time, a crater of monstrous dimensions was formed - its diameter was about 100 KILOMETERS! The age of known astroblemes reaches 700 million years! It should be noted that 65 million years ago, the extinction of dinosaurs and other representatives of the then fauna occurred on Earth. The era of extinction, lasting only about 200 years, swept through the time scale of our planet like a destructive tornado. The sedimentary rocks of the oceanic deposits formed at that time provide us with documentary evidence of the transience of the drama of the deadly event. Based on their detailed studies, it is assumed that an asteroid about 10 kilometers across crashed into the Earth, and as a result of a monstrous explosion, thousands of cubic kilometers of resulting dust rose into the atmosphere. This terrible cloud blocked access to the sun's rays for several years, and as a result of the ensuing universal darkness on Earth, the process of life-giving photosynthesis was interrupted. World famine has arrived. Almost all vertebrates more massive than 20-30 kilograms died of starvation. It is clear that this version also refutes the hypothesis about Phaeton. If Phaeton exploded 16 million years ago, then where did the asteroid that fell to Earth 65 million years ago come from? So where did asteroids come from? The modern model of the origin of the Solar System assumes the simultaneous formation of the Sun and planets (including asteroids) from a huge mass of gas, consisting mainly of hydrogen. It is called the solar nebula. Under the influence of gravitational forces, the gas nebula was compressed in such a way that the central region became the densest. The Sun appeared in the center, becoming the main object of the entire cloud. The impact of gravitational forces and solar radiation destroyed the original structure of the cloud. Rarefactions and condensations (protoplanets) appeared in it, capturing all the matter that came their way. It was from the most massive protoplanets that planets formed. At the same time, nuclear reactions began on the Sun, converting hydrogen into helium. Thus, about 5 billion years ago, the solar system was formed as we see it now. Asteroids, the remains of intermediate bodies from which planets were created, have survived to this day. They never managed to form into a planet due to the proximity of massive Jupiter. The giant planet, through its influence, increased the relative speeds of the asteroids and brought this process to such a state that the kinetic energy of the asteroids exceeded the gravitational one, and under such conditions they could no longer connect and form into a single body upon meeting. Rather, on the contrary, the collision led to mutual fragmentation rather than unification. Alas, the hypothesis about Phaeton was not confirmed. The fairly weighty arguments given above should not leave respected users with any doubts.

Not long ago there was a discussion in the astronomical community that there was another planet in the Solar System between Jupiter and Mars.

The proof is that now there is a so-called asteroid belt (consisting of approximately 400,000 asteroids), and traces of organic molecules were found on them, which means that the asteroids broke away from the planet. According to one hypothesis, this is the planet Phaeton.

This is confirmed by the well-known Titius-Bode rule. The Titius-Bode rule is an empirical formula that approximately describes the distances between the planets of the Solar System and the Sun (average orbital radii).

To each element of the sequence Di=0,3,6,12, 4 is added, then the result is divided by 10. The resulting number is considered the orbital radius of the i-th planet in astronomical units. That is

Another formulation is also found: for any planet, the distance from it to the innermost planet (Mercury) is twice as large as the distance from the previous planet to the inner planet.

The calculation results are shown in the table:

It can be seen that the asteroid belt also corresponds to this pattern, and Neptune, on the contrary, falls out of the pattern, and its place is taken by Pluto, although, according to the decision of the XXVI Assembly of the IAU, it is excluded from the number of planets.

The rule did not attract much attention until Uranus was discovered in 1781, which fit almost exactly into the predicted sequence. And then Phaethon was presented as the missing planet according to this formula. Once upon a time, during a parade of planets, she collided with Mars, and after that, Mars became lifeless. A similar fate awaited the Earth, but most of the energy was extinguished by Mars.

Opponents of this theory argue that each planet has a core, which was not found among asteroids. Accordingly, there is no core - and, therefore, there was no planet.
And then scientists have an explanation - the Moon is that very core. It turns out that many chronicles, myths and legends say that the Moon was not in the sky. And it appeared after the Flood. Let us remember that the ebb and flow of the tides on our planet is “controlled” by the Moon. Then we can imagine how strong the tide could have been when the core of Phaeton appeared so close to the surface of the Earth. Masses of water, including those that were underground, were raised to the surface by tidal forces. This was the flood.

It is also known that more than 12 thousand years ago a year was 360 days. Scientists explain the increase in the year by five days as follows: the mass of the Earth has increased due to the presence of the Moon, the planet has moved further from the Sun, the orbit has become larger, and the year has increased by five days.

Not everyone agrees with the theory about Phaeton and the Moon. Some believe that the asteroid belt is not a destroyed planet, but a planet that was never able to form due to the gravitational influence of Jupiter and partly other giant planets.

Main asteroid belt– the area between Mars and Jupiter with small cosmic bodies: photo, discovery, structure, composition, list of objects, research.

In the 18th century, scientists were able to create a rough map of our solar system by studying the orbital paths of the planets. This is where the Titius-Bode law came from, which predicted the spatial gaps between planets. It was clear that there was a remarkable gap between Mars and Jupiter, which attracted the attention of researchers.

In addition, small bodies, which were later called “asteroids,” began to fall into the lenses, and then reached the “belt” itself. Let's explore carefully main asteroid belt Solar system.

Discovery of the Asteroid Belt

In 1800, Franz Xaver von Zack planned to solve the problem of the Titius-Bode law. He formed an astronomy club, the United Space Society, which also included William Herschel.

It is surprising that the first tiny object was noticed on January 1, 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, who received an invitation, but was not yet officially a member of the club.

Initially, he thought it was a comet, but it became clear that she was not in a coma. He named the find Ceres (photo above) and suggested that he had collided with a planet. 15 months later, Heinrich Olbers found a second body in the same area - 2 Pallas.

In appearance, the objects differed little from stars, since even at maximum magnification they were not resolved into disks. But the rapid movement indicated an orbital character. William Herschel proposed creating a class of "asteroids".

In 1807, 3 Juneau and 4 Vesta were found, in 1845 - 5 Astrea. In the 1850s the term "asteroids" came into widespread use, and objects were found more frequently. Gradually they began to use the concept of an asteroid belt, although the exact original source was not found. Below is a diagram showing the orbit of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

In 1868, there was a list of 100 asteroids, and with the advent of photography in 1891, the number was significantly increased. Before 1921, 1000 objects were found, in 1981 – 10,000, and in 2000 – 100,000. Modern systems use automatic search programs.

Structure of the Asteroid Belt

Despite popular misconception, the main asteroid belt is mostly empty space where objects are distant at great distances. But we know of the presence of hundreds of thousands of asteroids, and the total number could be close to a million. Approximately 200 objects span 100 km in diameter, and the IR survey showed 0.7-1.7 million asteroids with an extent of 1 km or more.

The asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter at a distance of 2.2-3.2 AU. from the Sun and covers a length of 1 AU. The total mass reaches from 2.8 x 10 21 kg to 3.2 x 10 21 kg, which equates to 4% of the lunar mass. About half of the mass goes to the 4 largest objects: Ceres (1/3), 4 Vesta, 2 Pallas and 10 Hygiea.

The main belt population is sometimes divided into three zones based on the Kirkwood Gap. It was named after Daniel Kirkwood, who in 1866 discovered gaps between the orbital paths of asteroids.

Zone I is located between the 4:1 resonances and the 3:1 Kirkwood gaps, which corresponds to a distance from the Sun of 2.6 AU. and 2.5 a.u. Zone II continues from end I to the 5:2 resonance gap (2.88 AU). Zone III extends from the outer edge of II to the 2:1 gap (3.28 AU).

The main asteroid belt between the planets is also divided into inner and outer, where the first is formed by asteroids close to Mars, and the outer one is closer to the orbital path of Jupiter. Asteroids with a distance of 2.06 AU from the star can be perceived as an internal boundary.

The temperature in the belt varies depending on the distance from the sun's rays. For internal particles, the degree is understood to be -73°C at a distance of 2.2 AU. and up to -108°С at 3.2 a.u.

Composition of the Asteroid Belt

Many asteroids are rocky, but some contain iron and nickel. The rest contain impurities of carbon, ice and volatile substances.

The belt is home to three types of asteroids: C (carbonaceous), S (silicate) and M (metallic). The C-type is rich in carbon, dominates the outer areas and contains more than 75% of the observed objects. The surface composition is consistent with carbonaceous copper-chondrite meteorites, and the spectra demonstrate the ancient Solar System.

S-types are more common in the inner part at a distance of 2.5 AU. from the sun. Typically represented by silicates and some metals. It is believed that their material has changed over time due to melting and reformation. You can study the main celestial bodies in the asteroid belt of the Solar System.

M-types represent 10% of the total and are filled with iron-nickel and silicate compounds. There is an assumption that a certain part could have appeared from the metal cores of differentiated asteroids.

There is also a rare variety of V-type (basalt). In 2001, it was suggested that most of the basaltic asteroids came from Vesta. But then we found out that they differed in composition. It is believed that there should be a lot of them, but 99% of the predicted objects are simply missing.

Families and groups of the Asteroid belt

Approximately 1/3 of the celestial bodies in the asteroid belt are included in families. They are divided by similarity in orbital features, such as eccentricity, orbital inclination and other spectral features. They could have been formed during a collision with larger objects, which later broke up into small bodies.

Among the most famous families, it is worth remembering the groups of Flora, Eunoma, Koronis, Eos and Themis. Flora's family is considered one of the largest and contains more than 800 objects. Could have been caused by an impact a billion years ago. Located in the inner belt area. The objects are S-type and make up 4-5% of the total asteroid quantity.

Eunome is inhabited by S-type bodies. The name is taken from the goddess of law and order. The bodies are in the intermediate zone and cover 5%. Approximately 300 asteroids live in Koronis. Among them, the largest is 208 Lacrimosa, stretching for 41 km.

The Eos family is distant at 2.96-3.03 AU. and appeared after an impact 1-2 billion years ago. Includes 4,400 S-type members. But IR analysis shows differences, so they were classified in their own category (K).

The Temis group is located on the outer territory of the belt at a distance of 3.13 AU. Among the objects, 24 Themis, belonging to the C-type, seems noteworthy. Vesta is considered the largest, and the family of the same name was formed due to clashes.

Also in the asteroid belt you can find dust lines with particle radii of up to several hundred micrometers. Fine material is created during asteroid collisions. There are three lines with similar orbital inclinations.

Origin of the Asteroid Belt

Initially, it was believed that the asteroid belt was the result of the destruction of a large planet located between Mars and Jupiter. This theory was proposed by G. Albders and W. Herschel. But she was rejected.

First of all, destroying a planet would require a huge amount of energy. In addition, the fact is that the entire asteroid volume reaches only 4% of the lunar mass. And the objects themselves differ in chemical composition.

Today's conclusion is that asteroids are leftover material from the early solar system and were never part of the planet. In the first millions of years, as gravitational accretion led to planetary formation, clumps of material coalesced into large objects. But on the territory of the asteroid belt, the planetesimals succumbed to the powerful gravity of Jupiter and were unable to merge.

But one should not perceive asteroids as the initial material of the system. They went through a long evolutionary stage (internal heating, surface melting from collisions and space weathering). Therefore, the modern belt contains only a small amount of the original one.