A Former Planet

A Former Planet

Comet Orbits Point To Former 10th Planet

An astronomer at the United States Naval observatory believes there is solid evidence that a giant planet existed between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter about six million years ago.

Dr. Thomas C. Van Flanders based his findings on the computer plottings of the orbits of 60 very-long-period comets that may have originated from the explosion of the giant planet.

In tracing the orbits of these comets – each has been seen only once from Earth – Van Flandern found there is a tendency for the orbits to intersect at a common point located in the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt, confined primarily to the area between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, has been suspected since its discovery of being the by-product of a former planet.

Life on a planet. Did a biological life exist on a hypothetical former planet. Photo: Elena

Van Flandern said that although the orbits scatter all over the sky, they tend to cluster near 2.49 degrees ecliptic longitude. The clustering is statistically significant: at the center of the cluster, four orbits intersect within 0.01 cubic degrees.

The cause of the theorized giant planet’s break-up is unknown.

The results of Van Flandern’s work support the theory proposed in 1972 by University of British Columbia astronomer M. W. Ovenden. Ovenden said there were strong indications that a former planet existed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter with a mass 90 times that of Earth.

The idea that the break-up of a planet is responsible for the presence of the asteroid belt is not new. German astronomer Johann Bode devised a formula (Bode’s Law) two centuries ago for predicting the planets’ distances from the sun. His formula predicted that a planet existed between Mars and Jupiter, but none was found.

(History of Astronomy. Astronomy Magazine, August 1976).