THE SOLAR SYSTEM Part two
The distances calculated with this method are very close to the actual distances. In 1778, J. Bode had to get out the formula of forgetting where she had fallen. It now bears his name. Applied to the planet Uranus, it calculates the distance with a margin of error of less than 5 percent, which was remarkable for the time. For Mars, the result was 240 million km against 228 million in reality (1.6 astronomical units).
The method was fully applicable, but when he had to go to the distance of 2.8 astronomical units, corresponding to 420 million kilometers, no planet appeared. For cons, the next step of 5.2 astronomical units or 780 million km was Jupiter (778 million kilometers). Same result for Saturn, a 10 astronomical units, or 1.5 billion kilometers, against 1.428 billion kilometers in reality. All this coincided perfectly enough, so why this void at the position 2.8? Astronomers puzzled by the phenomenon, pointed their glasses in the hope to break what was becoming the mystery of the planet 28.
The research lasted from 1796 to 1801. The January 1, 1801, Father Piazzi discovered a star a thousand kilometers in diameter, which he named Ceres. Its distance measured with modern methods, proved to be of 2.76 astronomical units; March 28, 1802, the German Olbers discovered a second planet 600 km in diameter in the constellation of Virgo, he named Pallas. The surprise was great. On September 1, 1804, the Englishman spotted Harding Juno with 300 kilometers in diameter. Then it was the turn of Vesta, then Star, etc. In the year 1900, several hundred of these small planets had already been identified. Experts believe the number is difficult to establish, would be several tens of thousands. To date, several thousand asteroids have been cataloged and discoveries continue at a rate of dozens per year. Their diameter is very uneven, ranging from a few hundred meters to a thousand kilometers to Ceres.
Research by observatories Mac Donald and Palomar, the United States showed that there were nearly 500,000 fragments greater than 1.5 kilometers in size. All these asteroids and countless stone blocks are grouped in a huge ring at a distance of 300 to 500 million kilometers from the sun, in the space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter at the same location the missing planet.
The asteroid belt orbits the sun with revolutions between two and six years, in time means identical to those of a planet at such a distance. By comparison, the planet Mars which rotates in the lower orbit (1.6 AU), loop rotation in 1 year, 10 months and 22 days, while Jupiter in upper orbit (5.2 AU) puts 11 years, 10 months and 16 days to complete his. Thus, the asteroid belt acts as a planet.
The origin of the material remained mysterious and many assumptions were made. Is this residue that could not form a single star, as the Kuiper said in 1950? Or otherwise materials during the accretion to form a planet, according to the Swedish astronomer Alfen, who developed the idea in 1964? According to Olbers, author of the discovery of two asteroids (Pallas and Vesta), the largest asteroid ring resulting from the explosion of an ancient planet, design recovery in 1972 by the American astronomer Ovenden, in which the planet was 90 times more massive than earth and whose current materials (1/3 000th of the volume of the soil) are a very small part. Name the hypothetical planet Olbers or Phaeton who, according to Greek mythology, is the son of Helios and Clymene.
Nobody at present is able to advance a credible theory to explain the origin of the immense ring of asteroids. Just indicate the presence of this phenomenon and noted that astronomers have known transmitted among other assumptions, that the existence of a planet now disintegrated, to which they also gave a name. However, another hypothesis concerning the existence of a real planet, but not cataloged as such in the register of official planets exist; here is his story:
The American astronomer Charles Kowal discovered in October 1977 with the telescope on Mount Palomar, a planet traveling at 2400 million km (16 AU) from the sun, between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, far from the belt asteroid. The planet was named after its inventor "Kowal". It is also known as Chiron. It accomplishes its revolution around the sun in fifty years and has a diameter of 400 to 650 kilometers. So it is a planet, but a small planet. Reproaches made to him some astronomers. However Kowal had to answer that no one had set lower limit to the diameter of a planet. The existence of this star is proven today, and although its diameter is twenty times less than that of the earth, no one can deny him his planet quality.
The hunt for the planet started up again. In 1946, the French positioned itself Sevin unknown 11 billion kilometers from the sun. In 1972, Collins and confirmed Hammerton distance and clarified that the mass must be between two and five times that of the earth. For Brady, the mass would rather be 300 times larger, but it reduces the distance to 9 billion kilometers. Lowell sees seven Earth masses. By cons, Tombaugh's observations reveal that nothing similar exists on the ecliptic plane, and that up to 40 billion kilometers.
But there is also another possibility. Because of its remoteness, it was difficult to estimate the diameter of Pluto and its mass. The measures Kuiper in 1950 were 5 800 km. Others suggest different figures. At last count, the reality would be closer to 4000 km. In 1978, the Americans and Christy Harrington, discovered a satellite of Pluto, Charon, whose diameter is 2 000 km and the orbital period of 6.69 days. The peculiarity of this couple is that their size is unique in the solar system. The satellite's diameter is 50% of that of the planet, whereas the other systems, the report is: Earth / Moon 27%. Neptune / Triton 8.48%. Saturn / Titan: 4.46% etc.
This proportionality that if Charon describes the system around the center of mass of a circle of radius 13,000 kilometers from Pluto describes another 7 000 km. The unprecedented size of Charon relative to Pluto and the influence of the satellite on the planet eventually impose some, the idea of ??a double planet, rather than the more common home planet and satellite. And this in such double stars observed in large numbers in the sky. If this method of classification is minimal justification in the future, then the solar system will be enriched by a new planet that does not appear in the official catalog.
At every opportunity, we must not omit to mention the adventure now abandoned the planet Vulcan that was supposed to turn close to the sun. Its existence was postulated by the French Le Verrier in view of the disturbances recorded in the orbit of Mercury. Just as the discovery in 1971 by the American astronomer H. Courteen, a planet named Zoe, he would have spotted 15 million kilometers from the sun, and it turned out to be ... nonexistent. Even in challenging some assumptions in particular, those who sense the presence of planets orbiting between the sun and Mercury, that still leaves a lot of possibilities. There can be competent astronomers able to refute entirely the possibility of one or more global presence in the solar system, at some point in its history.
At first glance, it would be so simple to complete the number of planets to get to number eleven, which was highlighted at the beginning of this article. It would suffice to take into account the largest planet moving in the belt of asteroids Ceres, as number ten and the largest planet in circulation between Saturn and Uranus, Chiron for number eleven. Astronomers can never refute the reality of the fact that this is indeed planets, despite their modest size. Or he can always count as a planet and Charon add to it, or Ceres, is Chiron, which always carry the number to eleven. The proposals can be numerous and original. Still, it is better to think in conclusion, that current scientific means are not enough developed to secure, error-free, a real shot in the solar system that would include all past and present stars. It is on this condition and this can take time, that man can say with reason, that knowledge will open new horizons.
Meanwhile, it must be noted that the theory of five medieval planets, dear elders, never found an audience with the Sacred Text. And if the son of Jacob, said: "O my father, I saw in a dream eleven stars ...", this vision seems not so preposterous to contemporary scholars as she appeared to their ancestors L. the future will take care provided to be fruitful, to lift some of the mystery that is left for astronomers, so that the sacred predictions were fully confirmed. that would fully justify the belief of the faithful, which is to think, really, the Koran is not a treasure that can be opened with the key of ignorance.
Searching for the tenth planet
"Astronomers of the Observatory of the naval base at Arlington advance in research they have undertaken to find the tenth planet of the solar system. Assumptions about this tenth planet are changing, because an imposing mass that revolves around the sun at the periphery of the system is now slightly change its trajectory, disrupting the orbits planned Uranus and Neptune, said the RS Harrington astronomer. "We are still unable to precisely locate Uranus it is clear that there has been a change in the outer circle of the solar system," said one. Since the beginning of the century, astronomers think that there are other planets. This theory comes from the fact that Uranus does not describe the symmetrical around the sun and majestic orbit that experts had expected. This is what had led to the discovery of the ninth planet of the system, Pluto in 1930. But it is too small to account for the irregularities of the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. Harrington noted that the search for the tenth planet is now done with the help of a computer, which tries to determine or should find this mysterious planet to have such effects on the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. The planet is, according to the astronomer, three to five times larger than Earth and its orbit three times farther from the sun than Neptune or Pluto At such a distance would a planet a thousand years to go round the sun. "