The asteroid belt, long purported to be just a jumbled hodge podge of rocks orbiting between Mars (1.5 AU) and Jupiter (5.2 AU) is now known to have been formed from a family of 6 or 7 preexisting large parent bodies. Isotopic studies show there were at least 6 ancient parent bodies in the asteroid belt zone while mineralogic studies point to 7 distinct bodies. |
In other words, there used to be 7 large bodies smaller than Mars which were driven to self-destruction by collisions.
We partially know these parent bodies existed because pallasite meteorites like Fukang could only develop inside a body with specific pressure and heat conditions. Additional corroborating evidence comes from spectrographic similarity, resonance, inclination and the orbital eccentricity that these groups of objects share. The current prevailing assumption is that when Jupiter crossed the asteroid belt zone it caused "six" planets to collide, the collisions were responsible for their destruction, |
No, absolutely not!
Not in my opinion. How do I explain their destruction?
The Roche Radius is a zone where a planet's tidal forces tear apart orbiting bodies. The Roche radius is the distance at which a satellite is torn apart by the larger body's gravitational force. This distance depends on the densities of the two bodies but as a general rule it is about 2.44 times the radius of the parent body. |
Any satellite that reaches the Roche limit of a planet, will be destroyed and turned into ring fodder for the planet (assuming the planet is gravitationally strong enough to do so).
Obviously most of the destroyed satellite's material will become ring debris eventually falling into the planet some will be ejected away from the planet but a very small amount will escape both processes. Perhaps less than one tenth of one percent of the original satellite body will escape Jupiter's cannibalism and/or ejection to remain mostly near its original orbital trajectory. |
Tidal flex energy is a relatively new concept (1979), as such, its not an idea incorporated into much of the scientific interpretations related to the energy induction process of proto-planet, planetesimal, embryo and planetary formation. Instead most science papers written about moons or planetary rounded bodies (in hydrostatic equilibrium) tend to utilize the concept of radioactive decay and/or accretion (impact) processes to explain a planet's internal heat source. However, tidal flex is a very dominant energy source in the solar system its more relevant than accretion (impact) heat energy and I'm suggesting its even more relevant than radioactive decay energy. |
Mercury
NASA's probe, Mariner 10, in 1974 flew past Mercury and discovered something that had been assumed to be impossible. Since Mercury (2,440 km) is such a small planet, it's core should have cooled into a solid ball of metal by now. In essence, it doesn't have enough radioactive material or residual accretion heat energy to have a hot core after 4.5 billion years. Hence, it was naturally assumed to be a dead planet but we didn't know about or consider the effect of tidal flex energy as a constant input energy source induced by its orbital eccentricity. |
An aside:
The IAU has determined that Pluto is not a planet because it hasn't cleared its orbital path. By that reasoning, the Earth isn't a planet since there are currently over 22,000 known Near Earth Objects (NEO) (https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/). This number grows daily. A better "planet" definition: A gravitaionally self rounded body that orbits a star. Pluto fits these criteria, plus, its geologically active. Its alive. |
Jupiter's moons Io, Europa & Ganymede Jupiter has three geologically active moons, Ganymede which is similarly sized to Mercury, Io and Europa which are smaller than Mercury. All of these moon's cores are heated by tidal flex energy. Io (1,815 km radius) is heated by tidal flex such that it's rocky surface is the most volcanically active in the solar system spewing out ultramafic lava (really hot), (much hotter than Earth's lava). Mercury is only 5.5% the mass of Earth while Io is only 1.5% Earth's mass and yet Io (via tidal flex) is far more volcanically active, hot and energetic than Earth. Tidal flex is a significant source of current, consistent, regular induced energy. |
Europa Europa (1,569 km radius) is less than 1% the mass of Earth and has evidence of an active core from tidal flex energy. Europa has an icy outer shell with deposits of sulfur salt minerals lining its surface ice fractures. These brown minerals are delivered to Europa's surface through hydrothermal vents contained inside a very thin layer of salty ocean water below the icy outer shell. The hydrothermal vent energy source is explained by tidal flex energy induced into Europa by Jupiter |
Ganymede Ganymede (as moons go) is quite large (2,634 km radius), it's 2.5% the Earth's mass, it is physically slightly larger than the planet Mercury but it is half Mercury's mass. In other words it has less than half the radiogenic material as Mercury. It has a magnetic field which means it has a churning molten hot core created by (you guessed it) tidal flex energy not radiogenic or impact energy, rather flexing and stretching caused by its orbital relationship to Jupiter. Ganymede has auroras similar to Earth's created by its magnetosphere's interaction with Jupiter's radiation belt. |
Saturn moon Enceladus
Enceladus is puny (252 km radius), its less than half the size of Pluto's dead moon Charon. Enceladus is so small it's near the boundary where a body can gravitationally make itself round. It is only geologically active because of induced tidal flex energy. It is tidally stretched by Saturn and as such is geologically active. Enceladus is spewing out guessers of ice crystals from its south pole which are forming Saturn's E ring. |
To put Enceladus' small size in perspective, it has a radius of 252 km while Neptune's moon Proteus is 210 km. This is Proteus, its orbit is circular not eccentric, no tidal flexing. Proteus' shape is irregular not round. Its density is 1.3 g/cm³, Enceladus' density is 1.6. They have similar amounts of rocky, potentially radioactive, material. Proteus is dead. Enceladus is not. |
Saturn moon Mimas
Mimas (198 km radius) is only one of two known rounded solar system bodies smaller than Enceladus. Mimas is the smallest rounded body in the solar system and is considered shaped due to tidal flexing forces. Wiki quote; Due to the tidal forces acting on it, Mimas is noticeably prolate; its longest axis is about 10% longer than the shortest. |
Uranus moon Miranda
Miranda (235 km radius) Wiki Quote Precisely how a body as small as Miranda could have enough internal energy to produce the myriad geological features seen on its surface is not established with certainty,[18] though the currently favoured hypothesis is that it was driven by tidal heating during a past time when it was in 3:1 orbital resonance with Umbriel.[20] The resonance would have increased Miranda's orbital eccentricity to 0.1, and generated tidal friction due to the varying tidal forces from Uranus.[21] As Miranda approached Uranus, tidal force increased; as it retreated, tidal force decreased, causing flexing that would have warmed Miranda's interior by 20 K, enough to trigger melting.[21][12][13] |
Neptune moon Triton
Triton is basically Pluto's twin and is a moon thought to be captured by (not accreted around) Neptune. When Voyager 2 flew past Triton it actually took images of actively spewing plumes erupting from the surface. Triton has active volcanism or perhaps better described as cryovolcanism taking place on its surface. Care to guess how scientists explain this phenomenon? Yep! Tidal flex from its off center equatorial orbit around Neptune. |
But I would suggest the Earth is still being heated by the eccentric orbit of the Moon as well as Earth's own eccentric orbit around the Sun.
When NASA landed on the Moon, scientists left behind seismic sensors and these sensors sound off once per month due to the Moons orbital eccentricity with the Earth. In other words, the Moon registers regular seismic activity as a direct result of its orbital characteristics around the Earth. Or you could say the Moon is tidally flexed every month due to its eccentric orbit around Earth. The moon is receding from the Earth (3.8 cm (1.49 in) per year) meaning its tidal flexing was previously much stronger. This same gravitational flexing energy is induced into Earth by the Moon. Older science theories suggest the Mare (dark flat planes) on the Moon were created by impacts but more recent, more accurate information shows how these Mare were created by volcanic processes. The dark Mare blotches are volcanic lava flows. |
The near and far side of the Moon look completely different. The near side is much smoother than the far side.
The near side of the moon is much younger than the far side as there are noticeably fewer impact craters inside the Mare. This suggests, in part, that the Mare formed once the Moon locked its near side toward the Earth, then the Earth's gravity focused its pull on the dense lava raising it to the surface. |
The crustal thickness of the far side of the moon is as much as 60 km thicker than the near side. While the near side of the Moon is more dense than the far side its depth is more shallow.
The dense side of the Moon always faces the Earth since the Moon is tidally locked to Earth. This suggests that after the Earth stopped the moon's rotation, it gravitationally pulled the moon's dense magma to the surface. The smoother younger more dense near side Mare on the Moon display some similarities to Mars' surface as well as its northern hemisphere (NH). |
Mars This brings us to my whole point about tidal flex. Since Jupiter, during the grand tack model, was once within Mars' orbital zone it, would have tidally flexed Mars. |
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Olympus Mons is thought to be 2.54 to 3.67 byr old, that's a 1.13 billion year period through which Olympus Mons developed and erupted several times.
Here on Earth, with its churning active hot core, the life span of volcanoes is months to several million years not hundreds of millions of years or even more than a thousand million (billion) years. This makes Olympus Mons' billion year life span unique. Tiny Mars, a tenth the size of Earth, erupted really hot lava over the course of a billion years. If these volcano eruptions are tied to Jupiter's tacking process then Jupiter likely began tacking inward around 4 Ga then outward by around 3 Ga. |
The Tharsis region on Mars looks similar to the bulging spider (expansion fractures) region on Pluto. Mars' crust is made of rock while Pluto's is rock hard ice. The difference in energy to create these two similar features is significant.
Antipodal to Mars' Tharsis region (highest elevation and density) is Hellas Basin with the (lowest collapsed depression) and weakest gravitational zone. |
Trojans are a collection of asteroids/comets trapped in two zones 60 degrees ahead and behind Jupiter. These two zones are called Lagrange points L4 and L5. I am suggesting, at least some of, these Trojans are debris created by Jupiter when it crossed the asteroid belt zone placing the 7 parent bodies within its Roche limit. My scenario is this. Jupiter migrated inward tearing apart (via Roche radius) the original 7 planetesimals, it ate much of the debris scattered and eject more of it, captured some of it at L4 and L5 and left a very small portion behind as pallasites, rocky asteroids and rocky chondrule dominated carbonaceous meteorites. While impacts may have caused one or two of the original planetesimals to collide and self destruct it is much more likely Jupiter's gravitational force performed the bulk of the destructive work via tidal flexing and Roche radius destruction. |
Space rocks come in three forms; Stony, Iron, and a mix of Iron/Stone. Pallasite is another name for Iron/Stony meteorites. The stony part of pallasite is primarily olivine which is a silicate glassy type of volcanic rock similar to obsidian. The formation process of pallasite is still controversial. The primary area of discussion revolves around the rate at which the iron cooled as knowing this has implications about the depth at which the iron developed inside its parent body. |
Widmanstatten patterns are linear bands that develop in slow cooling nickel iron alloys while fast cooling metal does not have time to form crystalline linear structures and is amorphous or globular. Widmanstatten patterns indicate slow cooling while non structured nickel iron blobs indicate fast cooling rates. Most pallasites show signs of fast cooling rates while some show signs of both fast and slow cooling rates taking place within one pallasite meteorite. |
Olivine is produced in volcanic processes that take place deep inside a planet or space body that is able to differentiate its rocky/iron material by way of heat and pressure. |
On Earth, olivine is delivered to the surface via volcanic eruptions. Top left image is of olivine encased in Hawaiian basaltic lava rock.
There are two areas on Mars where volcanic activity was previously focused or targeted, they are called Tharsis and Elysium. If Mars was volcanically ejecting olivine onto its surface, this is where it should be found, yet this is precisely where it is NOT found. |
The fact that olivine is completely missing from Tharsis and the Elysium region (above image dotted lines) indicates these volcanic zones spilled material on top of any preexisting evidence of olivine deposits from pallasite meteorites.
This makes the volcanoes younger than the olivine deposits. In other words the olivine packed pallasite meteorites were laid down before the volcanoes erupted and their emplacement was a one time event predating the lava outflow 3.67 Ga. As Jupiter migrated inward, it broke apart the 7 asteroid belt parent bodies hurling pallasite meteorites at Mars and Earth laying down olivine deposits within impact craters. |
Jupiter stretched Mars into a prolate shape causing its north pole to break open similar to the tiger stripes on the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus or similar to our Moon's Mare or Jupiter's moon Io or Sputnik Planitia on Pluto. |
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