THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Some time back, maybe about 11 years back there was a seminar organised by Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai, about the shower of meteors on earth when it passes the path of a comet which had recently visited us. The comet was Haley’s, which had visited us in end 86 and beginning of 87. We were to cross the path in September’87, for the first time and the seminar was held in July’87.
It was announced in April that whoever wanted to participate should contact by certain date. I had wished to participate and had sent a request to them regarding the same. Unfortunately I was not included in participation nor attendance.
But it clicked a trigger in my mind. I kept thinking and preparing for the occasion as if I was to participate in it.
I kept thinking on various possibilities and was surprised at the outcome of it. I would like to summarise the same for you too. Yes, to be surprised too.
We all know what happens exactly when the earth passes through the path of a comet. I would not go into any details of it. But I was thinking a step further. It is like this:
Our Solar System is moving round the centre of our galaxy. It takes 200 million years for it to complete one rotation. It is well known that about 65 m years ago there was a heavy meteor shower on the earth which caused the extinction of Dinosaurs. It was later found that this occurs almost every 40 m years!
It is possible that we, the Solar System itself is passing through the trail of a cluster which have passed there, maybe 15-20 m years before we passed there? Most likely so. But this is not once. It happens 5 times during one rotation of our solar systems. So we are passing through the trails, different ones every time during our solar year!
If that is so then it is very well possible that the heavy meteor shower occurs on whole of our system. That is on all the planets! As we have seen that the cluster itself contains very large balls in large number, its trail could contain few hundreds of it. Some of them may be as large as our moon, may be even bigger than that.
It is therefore possible that when our solar system passes through such cluster trail next time, Jupiter which has eighteen satellites around it now could have 20. It may so happen that if a bigger ball passes near by stealing one or two of its satellites he may become poorer having left with only 15. Any thing can happen. Such things can happen to all planets including us.
It means that after 15 m years when the next heavy meteor shower is due we may have two or three moons!!
There is a still bigger and more dangerous possibility. Instead of passing by the planet and stealing its moon it could, a ball could collide with the moon of any of our planets and both of them may get destroyed. When such things happen the existing satellite of the planet and the passer by ball of almost similar size get crushed due to the great force of collision into small fragments and dust particles.
Large chunk of such small fragments get lost into the cluster trails but some amount of them get captured by the gravity of the planet and this cloud of crushed matter keep rotating round the effected planet! This cloud contains small fragments of both the balls which keep colliding with each other and get further disintegrated though they keep moving round the planet. After 10000 years or so a ring of such small fragments and dust particles forms round the planet.
Also the planet will get disturbed in its path round the sun. It gets settled in the new trajectory after the destruction of its satellite and formation of a ring round it. We have Saturn as a strong example of such happening in the past, having clearly visible rings round it.
As we now know planets Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune too have such rings but they are very thin, visible only with a strong telescope. It may due to destruction of a smaller satellite of their own or it might have formed by capturing the escaped fragments of Saturn satellite collision! Or it could be both of it.
During this time a shower of small meteor continues to fall on each planet and their satellites. This process continues for quite a long time ranging from 300 years to 5000 years!!
As such meteor shower continues on planets, the Sun cannot escape it. It also faces the same trauma of constant meteor showers on its surface. However, no small meteor may reach it in solid state. It will get melted before it reaches the surface and will get vaporised as soon as it reaches the surface and get merged into the active fumes of the Sun. However if a meteor of larger size than 2000 km hits the Sun, it will reach the Sun it in its solid but very hot form and within few days of hitting, it will get vaporised and mix into its gaseous state. If in case the meteor is larger than 5000 km and containing heavy metals / elements it will mix up with the hot gases of Sun in bit more time – few months, but it will leave an impression on its surface for quite a long time. May be few hundred million years!! Sun spots are the strong and solid examples of such happening in the recent past history of our Sun.
The matter does not end here. It has still bigger significance and still broader base of thinking. If you think still further you will realise that what could happen to he satellites of a planet could also happen to the satellites of our great Sun!
Imagine what could happen if a ball of 5000 km or more does not simply pass by a planet but hits it, or say collide with it? Same things will happen as in case of a satellite of Saturn but on a larger scale. Very large scale as a matter of fact. As a result of which a ring of fragment will form round the Sun!
Well we do have it!! A belt of fragments between trajectory of Mars and Jupiter are clear indications that such accidents have occurred in the past. It could have occurred somewhere around 3 b years in past. That is exactly when formation of life have just started or it could have started due to such heavy meteor shower on it, may be containing few fragments of the broken planets between Mars and Jupiter.
As few fragments of this fell on earth, they could have also fallen on Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn or Uranus. It can be clearly said that the broken planet had contained very large amount of water on it. It could also be said very confidently that this planet contained life on it.
As the fragments of planet fell on earth and life developed on it due to most favourable environment available to it. The fragments containing life also fell on other planets. As a matter of fact it is awaiting the favourable conditions to develop on them even now. There is a possibility that it would develop there may be after few hundreds of million years!
You may ask one very important question at this stage! Can life sustain itself in its potent form for such a long time – and in such adverse condition? I would say yes, and will prove it in our further discussion.
By:
Indu Mamtora
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