July 22nd 2016
Getting at the soul of our Solar system
On this page, I must set the groundwork for my next set of thoughts by explaining my view of our solar system prior to, during and just after our Sun's formation. I believe our solar system provides us with enough information to help draw a reasonable picture of these early stages and it differs somewhat from most interpretations that I've seen or read.
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This is the typical model of how our solar system formed. A giant cloud of dust and gas spun into a central ball and suddenly became a star which flattened the remaining gasses and dust into a disk which then formed rings from the waves created in space which then coalesced into planets.
Below is HL Tauri and while the vast disk of gas and dust can be seen in rings around it's central star likely in the process of forming some planets, it doesn't mean moons and/or planets had not already formed prior to the stars ignition. |
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There are likely moons or planets contained within this lit dust cloud around HL Tauri, they just can't be seen because of size.
Gasses need heat to be gaseous otherwise they are solids due to space's cold temperatures. This fact is seen in the Classical Kuiper Belt Objects in our solar system. That means, when our solar system was a cloud of dust and gas those gasses were in the form of small solid particles which at some point began clumping together to form larger solids of gas particles like comets and asteroids not gaseous gasses of clouds. As these solid particles of gas and dust coalesced into larger bodies like (smallest mass to largest) Comet 67p, Charon, Pluto, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter and the Sun, they began to produce internal heat under the pressure of gravity, yet they were still cold solids like Comet 67p throughout most of their earliest growth stages. |
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As their gravitational pressure grew, heat was generated such that the gasses began to transform into their three phases of solid, liquid and vapor. There was also space dust which under pressure would become rock some of which radioactively decayed and others picked up radiation from cosmic rays producing elements like aluminum-26.
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As these icy solid planets grew, the heavier solids migrated toward their gravitational center or core while the lighter solids and fluids were pressed upwards and outwards toward the outer surface of the body's sphere and once the body was large enough with enough internal heat energy, the solid gasses became a fluid then a vapor and an atmosphere was formed much like we see with the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
This atmospheric gas phenomenon is also seen on Pluto and may be the result of Pluto passing closer to the Sun than Neptune for brief periods in its orbit. |
The internal pressure of these early forming planets created the heat to separate gasses into their three stages and the gravitational force kept the gaseous gasses trapped as an atmosphere.
The Sun must have formed into a planet of ice and dust prior to becoming a star. Prior to the Sun's ignition it was the central part of all these swirling solid cold gas particles. It formed first as a planet and then became the largest planet similar to Jupiter or Saturn with its rings and moons. As it grew it sucked in ever increasing quantities of the lightest elements like hydrogen.
The Sun must have formed into a planet of ice and dust prior to becoming a star. Prior to the Sun's ignition it was the central part of all these swirling solid cold gas particles. It formed first as a planet and then became the largest planet similar to Jupiter or Saturn with its rings and moons. As it grew it sucked in ever increasing quantities of the lightest elements like hydrogen.
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Before the Sun ignited but still while in a growing phase, it was setting up gravity waves or ripples in space time. These low pressure wave zones clustered other groups of cold solid gasses into moons. Instead of looking like what we see today, it looked like a larger version of Saturn with its icy rings and moons.
As the Sun grew, its ripples in space must have changed. As the Sun grew from planet to star, it would have created longer wave patterns (greater distance from peak to trough) in space time setting up expanding zones for other gasses to accrete into. Small mass = small high frequency waves. Larger mass = longer low frequency waves. Changing mass = increased collisions. |
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Here we can see how gravitational wave patterns from a small object pulsates the icy dust grains of Saturn's rings. The Sun's changing and expanding mass and subsequent gravity changing waves would have likely pushed some of the already larger formed objects into each other and perturbed them into elliptical orbits. |
The Jovian planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are a stage or phase model of what our Sun looked like prior to nuclear fusion. At some point in its growth, it was hot enough to be a gas giant and big enough to create gravitational cluster zones which created moons or planets as we call them today just like Saturn. It also would have created moons with elliptical orbits like Io and Europa near Jupiter with tidal flexing.
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These moons would have, initially, been largely composed of water ice and dust just as we see today around Jupiter, remember, at this point, the Sun is still small like Jupiter so it has not yet ignited, the primary source of energy is tidal flexing from elliptical orbits and heat from internal gravitational pressure.
Some of the moons/planets would, via tidal flexing, start to burn off their water like Io as it orbits Jupiter and become a molten rocky planet. This is likely how our inner planets were initially cooked into rocky planets eventually these elliptical orbits would have settled into more circular orbits. |
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Then at some point the Sun would have grown so large that nuclear fusion took place as the gravity pushed two hydrogen atoms together and it ignited. The Sun would have been mostly cold during first ignition but as more hydrogen atoms fused, heat and pressure would have grown escalating the process. At this point there would have been for the first time an outward push of energy from the heat as well as an inward increase in pressure. This would have been the beginning of the solar wind. Up to this point most bodies were being sucked towards the Sun and this shock wave of outward pressure would have slowed many of these object's descent into the Sun.
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Some of the larger bodies contained in the outer zones of our solar system would have already been well on their way to forming into large enough bodies to create and hold onto their own atmospheres like Titan is to Jupiter.
Jupiter found itself in just the right place for gravity waves to coalesce the largest amount of material first so as a planet, it grew first and fastest. Jupiter is so massive you could fit all the other objects (planets, asteroids, comets) in our solar system within it and you can fit 1,000 Jupiter's into the Sun. |
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The heat energy from the Sun would have started aggressively forming and baking the material which would form the inner planets, stripping them of much of their surface gasses. If they had formed molten cores by this time a magnetosphere would have existed which would assist in protecting their atmosphere from the Suns solar wind once it ignited. The Sun was 20% less energetic than it is today so its radiation wouldn't have had as much stripping impact on the planets. The gas giants were far enough away from the Sun that its heat energy did not strip their gasses off rather the gravitational energy of those planets provided the heat and pull to keep an atmosphere of gas surrounding their core while the Sun's energy assisted slightly with the warming of the gaseous atmosphere but not the striping of those gasses.
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This is the process we see occurring now in each phase as we migrate from 50 Astronomical Units (AU) down to 25 AU and finally down to 3 AU and below, Classical Kuiper Belt Objects sustain their distance from the Sun at 50 AU and they do not show signs of tholin which is the production of simple organic molecules by the UV energy from the Sun acting upon gasses like methane.
Plutinos that orbit between 50 and 30 AU do show signs of tholin production so somewhere around 40 AU the Suns energy becomes low enough that it can not produce these simple organic compounds. Pluto at ~40AU (30-50 AU) from the Sun demonstrates how gasses behave as solids in the really cold of space, it also demonstrates how impact energy, gravitational energy and possibly radioactive energy can begin the phase change from solid gasses to liquid gas and onto gaseous gas this coupled with UV radiation produces organic compounds. Pluto's elliptical orbit with the Sun must create some degree of tidal stretching energy. |
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Between 30 AU and 5 AU (from Neptune to Jupiter) we can see how the weak UV heat energy from the Sun submits to the larger influence of local energy created by the mass of each planet as they convert their core's heat into a trapped spherical gaseous atmosphere but that atmosphere is not blown away by the solar wind.
The asteroid or main belt resides between 3.2 and 2.2 AU from the Sun. This is where small objects around the outer edge of the main belt are icy bodies or comet like objects while objects on the inner edge of the belt are rocky bodies. The inner edges of the main belt is the transitional zone where the Sun's energy evaporates away surface gasses and leaves behind space dust in the form of silicate rock asteroids while the outer edge of the main belt shows how the suns energy weakens enough for objects to be icy comets. From 3 to .3 AU things exist within the Suns atmosphere and are cooked and baked by its heat and solar wind turning the surfaces to stone, liquid water and gas, this is where we find the rocky inner planets. Mars barely has an atmosphere as it has no magnetic field to protect it, its surface water has been baked and blown away or is trapped on the planet as ice. |
Earth with its molten metal magnetic core has protected much of its water from the solar wind and heat of the Sun. Venus with its close proximity to the Sun and highly charged ionosphere does have a magnetosphere even though it doesn't have an active magnetic core. this has trapped its atmospheric green house gasses and has become a raging inferno. Mercury has been cooked to a ball of nearly solid iron and most all its gaseous gasses have been cooked away so there is no atmosphere. While Mercury has a magnetic core, its close proximity to the Sun has put it in a no win situation, consequently, its atmosphere is gone.
At 50 AU from the Sun gasses are solids and there is too little energy for gasses to form atmospheres just as at .3 AU (Mercury) from the sun there is too much energy for gasses to exist in a gaseous state. In between we see gasses in transitional phases. The Sun is a ball of plasma created by nuclear fusion of gasses and the electromagnetic charge primarily keeps those gasses contained but they are blown away via the solar wind. The suns been burning for 5 billion years and has another 4-5 billion to go. Moons and planets were forming prior to the Sun's ignition and they were changing position as those gravity waves grew in length. Imagine how much time it took for all the Sun's gas to accumulate and the gravity waves or ripples in space time created prior to ignition.
There is certainly much more going on in our solar system than this simple model but it lays the basis for my next thought which is formed from the Nice model. On the next page I want to migrate back out toward Pluto using the Nice model in partial support of a theory which I've argued against from the beginning of this process.
A point I am trying to make here is that the formation and distribution of our solar system didn't just pop into existence at 500 million years then stop for 4 billion years waiting for humans to come along and start studying the solar system. It as been a process of migration through time. It took time for the Sun to ignite and all along the way gravity was causing bodies to collide and grow. gravitational waves were expanding. Neptune took time to develop then it likely took a very long time to migrate outward to its current location. Then it took time for it to cluster Plutinos into a group and push them into eccentric orbits. This process continues to this day.
It is not known whether Pluto has a uniform or differentiated core. Since I have explored some thoughts on Pluto as having a uniform core, I’ve decided to explore what affect a differentiated core might have on my model after all its anybodies guess as to which it is so I might as well be open minded to both possibilities. Next I'm going to explore what a partially differentiated core might do to my model. Who knows, I might even start to agree with Bill McKinnon on some points.
At 50 AU from the Sun gasses are solids and there is too little energy for gasses to form atmospheres just as at .3 AU (Mercury) from the sun there is too much energy for gasses to exist in a gaseous state. In between we see gasses in transitional phases. The Sun is a ball of plasma created by nuclear fusion of gasses and the electromagnetic charge primarily keeps those gasses contained but they are blown away via the solar wind. The suns been burning for 5 billion years and has another 4-5 billion to go. Moons and planets were forming prior to the Sun's ignition and they were changing position as those gravity waves grew in length. Imagine how much time it took for all the Sun's gas to accumulate and the gravity waves or ripples in space time created prior to ignition.
There is certainly much more going on in our solar system than this simple model but it lays the basis for my next thought which is formed from the Nice model. On the next page I want to migrate back out toward Pluto using the Nice model in partial support of a theory which I've argued against from the beginning of this process.
A point I am trying to make here is that the formation and distribution of our solar system didn't just pop into existence at 500 million years then stop for 4 billion years waiting for humans to come along and start studying the solar system. It as been a process of migration through time. It took time for the Sun to ignite and all along the way gravity was causing bodies to collide and grow. gravitational waves were expanding. Neptune took time to develop then it likely took a very long time to migrate outward to its current location. Then it took time for it to cluster Plutinos into a group and push them into eccentric orbits. This process continues to this day.
It is not known whether Pluto has a uniform or differentiated core. Since I have explored some thoughts on Pluto as having a uniform core, I’ve decided to explore what affect a differentiated core might have on my model after all its anybodies guess as to which it is so I might as well be open minded to both possibilities. Next I'm going to explore what a partially differentiated core might do to my model. Who knows, I might even start to agree with Bill McKinnon on some points.
