Cosmic Conundrums
There are nine planets presently known in our Solar System, though Pluto's status has often been disputed. Escaped Neptunian moon or a planet? The International Astronomical Union apparently resolved the matter in February 1999 when they decided not to "demote" Pluto, despite sceptics saying it was "too insignificant" for consideration. I feel that Clyde Tombaugh's 1930 discovery is on par with Herschel finding Uranus [1781] and Galle and d'Arrest locating Neptune [1846], though based on calculations by J.C. Adams and U.J. Le Verrier.However, a tenth planet's existence has long been suspected [and debated], particularly as Pluto is "too small to account for Neptune's orbital disturbance." [Roy Stemman, Mysteries of the Universe, London, 1991, pg. 112]. Recently, the discovery of a planet "at least the size of Jupiter" and "one million million miles" from us [Daily Telegraph 8 October,1999] was announced. But this is too far out to be Planet X, for which there have been many "false dawns". These include the infamous Vulcan allegedly observed inside Mercury's orbit in 1859 by a French doctor and amateur astronomer, Lescarbault. Even Le Verrier was convinced, and a medal was struck in commemoration! Oddly, the reverse depicts 9 planets, including Vulcan.
Remember, at this time, Pluto's existence was unsuspected, so only 8 were known. So what was the other planet? According to the 18th century law of Johann Bode, concerning relative planetary distances from the Sun, where the Asteroid Belt lies between Mars and Jupiter, should be another planet. Three theories have been offered for its formation:
- Debris from an unformed "proto-planet"; or
- Planet/planets destroyed during a collision with another body; or
- Planet/planets that disintegrated. But was it natural? For example, the clearly unstable Uranian moon Miranda occasionally "self-destructs" and reassembles the fragments.
Intriguingly, Einstein favoured the third. Zecharia Sitchin in The Twelfth Planet (the Sumerian Solar System had 12) [1976], though, put a strong case for the second idea based on Babylonian mythology. Both he and Velikovsky argued that early civilizations used heavenly "battles" between "gods" to explain astronomical events they witnessed. With this in mind, Sitchin sought to interpret the 4000 year old epic Enuma Elish. Alford, in Gods of the New Millennium, said Sitchin was claiming that the Enuma actually detailed "the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago!" [Pg. 140]According to Sitchin, in the space occupied by the Belt, were originally two planets: Marduk and Tiamat. The former was "a wandering planet, thrust into the Solar System by an unknown cosmic event" [ibid.], which sounds not unlike Velikovsky's "birth" of Venus from Jupiter. In that article I mentioned that Nibiru/Marduk by-passed Earth 13,000 years ago probably causing the end of the last Ice Age and the Great Flood.
Further back, it seems, Marduk had smashed Tiamet and its satellites leaving behind asteroids and comets. From this catastrophe, Sitchin claimed, the Earth and Moon or Kingu were created. This is how Sitchin side-stepped criticism regarding the insufficiency of asteroidal matter for planetary formation. It could also be the reason for Uranus' bizarre 98 degree axial tilt, the Moon showing the same face to Earth, and other "anomalies" in our Solar System, such as
"the great red spot of Jupiter, the retrograde rotation of Venus and the eccentric orbit of Pluto. And then there are the moons of Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter...."[Ibid., pg 146]
Phobos and Deimos [Martian], Almathea [Jovian], several Saturnian satellites and Pluto's Charon, are asteroidal. Jupiter's moons orbit the planet in three distinct groups and on different planes. What became of Marduk is uncertain, but, by aligning Babylonian gods with planets, I found he corresponded to either Mercury or Jupiter.Throughout its history, Earth has experienced several mass extinctions, the most famous [and studied] happening 65 million years ago. The main cause in each case was probably asteroidal collision. Alford suggests the earliest may've occurred between 4.6 and 4 billion years ago, thereby accounting for the absence of lifeform evidence "in the fossil record...in the first 600 million years." [Ibid., pg. 147]. There has been endless speculation as to how life began, but many scientists favour an extraterrestrial origin from another cosmic body, either planetary [Mars has been suggested], asteroidal or via a meteor shower. These follow in the wake of comets [as the Leonids recently did with Temple-Tuttle]. Was this the origin of amino acids, the "building blocks" of DNA, and our oceans? [And could this be the "star seed" mentioned in ancient mythologies?] In fact, in 1991, asteroid fragments 4.5 billion years old were found in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Recent discoveries by oceanographers include hot springs and volcanic vents on the Atlantic and Pacific sea floors supporting strange and primitive lifeforms that "must have been the first to emerge on Earth 3.8 billion years ago" [Daily Telegraph, 10 September 1998]. This is very close to Alford's date... .
As astronomers find planets around other stars, one a gaseous giant just 50 light years away [Daily Telegraph, 23 November 1999], this means We Are Truly Not Alone. The producer of that stunning series The Planets said
"We are one solar system among millions. Even as the Earth dies, there will be new planets being formed around billions of stars."
Bearing in mind Stemman's comment viz. Pluto, astronomers locate "alien" worlds by detecting stellar gravitational "wobble" and via using infrared photography. Thanks to the HST [our Eye in the Sky] we are finding out so much more about our "neighbours"... . Happy New Millennium to All, wherever you are.
