A new theory argues that Earth and Mars originally formed a single protoplanet—Terramars—outside the orbit of Jupiter. Then, over 4 billion years ago, Terramars was pulled by Jupiter’s powerful gravitational field past the gas giant. As Terramars neared Jupiter, tidal forces heated it to the melting point, and Jupiter pulled Mars away from Earth. Both planets, now turned into red-hot comets, sped off into the inner solar system.
A new theory of the origin of the terrestrial planets appears to solve longstanding scientific riddles.
Researchers have encountered repeated frustration in their efforts to agree on how Earth came to have a significant amount of water. Meanwhile, the giant impact theory of the origin of the Earth-Moon system requires an elaborate scenario that seems impossible to verify and is undermined by new evidence. And none of the scores of hypotheses of the cause of the mass extinctions of prehistory has gained acceptance. Yet the new theory of the origin of the terrestrial planets can solve all three problems, and minor ones as well. Continue reading »
Babylonian skywatchers reported many details of celestial phenomena, but the astrologers of Babylon are said not to have relied on actual observations.
According to a leading expert, “The existence of Babylonian omens for eclipses beginning and clearing in all four directions, or areas of the moon, despite the fact that a lunar eclipse will never begin on the western edge of the moon, indicates a lack of concern with observational veracity in favor of schematic order.”[1]
This researcher uses the term “counterfactual” to refer to indications in the omen literature of the shadow of the Earth beginning on the western edge of the Moon. The conclusion is that there was no connection between astrology and astronomical observation; the omens were simply concocted according to schemata that suited the needs of the astrologers on the occasion.
However, there is a competing explanation that makes more sense of what the Babylonian astrologers were up to. Continue reading »