By Richard C. Hoagland
Copyright 1997 The Enterprise Mission
All
Rights Reserved
When one of the brightest comets in this century sweeps grandly
through the inner solar system after an absence of millennia -- a spectacular
object whose nucleus alone is estimated by professional astronomers
now to measure at least 25 miles across -- the apparition can be (and
has been!) reasonably termed "the event of a lifetime." Such
is the current apparition of "Hale-Bopp."
One glimpse of this extraordinary visitor, even from "glare-filled
inner-city skies," is more than enough to convince even the most
casual observer that there is indeed something "special" about
this one...
How special is about to be confirmed.
About 20 years ago, a young astronomer and expert in "celestial
mechanics" (orbital motions in space) at the United States Naval
Observatory, Dr. Thomas Van Flandern (METARESEARCH),
noticed something peculiar regarding the orbits of Very Long-Period
Comets (defined as those making their apparent first appearance in the
inner solar system). Van Flandern noticed that the orbits of these "first
timers," traced back against the reference points of background
stars, revealed an anomalous concentration of orbit "crossing points"
at two opposite locations along the common plane of planetary orbits
of the solar system [marked by the green "Xs" on the B&W
enlargement from a comet orbit/solar system diagram, reproduced below].
See Exploded
Planet Hypothesis.
Van
Flandern immediately noticed a striking similarity of this cometary
orbital behavior to (then) contemporary Soviet "anti-satellite"
tests being conducted in Earth orbit. In these tests, an explosive-laden
satellite was launched, to ultimately rendezvous with an orbiting target;
the rendezvous accomplished, the explosive charge would be detonated,
and the resulting explosion would destroy both the weapons' satellite
itself, as well as its intended target satellite.
Van Flandern's attention was drawn to the resulting orbits
of the shrapnel from both satellites; these tumbling pieces immediately
took up trajectories, in a variety of inclinations to the original satellites'
orbit, that matched --
to an astonishing degree -- the types of orbits shared by Van
Flandern's "first-time comets"; each satellite fragment, after
completing half an orbit of the Earth,
would converge back on the plane of the original satellites' orbit before
the "event" -- thus uniquely marking, via observable celestial
mechanics, the orbital site of the original explosion (right).
Van Flandern, who at this time was Head of the Celestial
Mechanics Branch of the U.S. Naval Observatory, saw in this behavior
a striking model for the then (still) mysterious "genesis of Very
Long Period Comets" (those whose first-time orbits carefully preserve
their original parameters, before repeated passages past inner solar
system planets are able to destroy this vital information by irrevocably
changing their recurring orbits). Even more significant: Van Flandern
realized that his Soviet weapons' observations and resulting cometary
comparisons was radical new evidence in support of a (by then) long-discarded
model for solar system evolution. Van Flandern realized that, if "pristine"
comets are still following trajectories strikingly reminiscent of orbital
explosions, then, maybe, those orbits were in fact the direct result
of a truly gigantic orbital explosion... like the long-imagined explosion
of an entire planet -- located in the puzzling "gap" between
the current orbits of Jupiter and Mars.
At
one time, about a hundred years ago, the prevailing theory for the origin
of at least the asteroids -- this collection of highly visible "debris"
orbiting between the planets Mars and Jupiter (left) -- was that these,
indeed, were the results of a formerly exploded planet. Then, as newer,
space-age observations began accumulating, this model fell increasingly
into scientific disrepute. Dr. Van Flandern's new celestial mechanics
observations were seen by his colleagues as nothing less than an attempt
to revive a long "discredited" solar system model. The implications
for ancient solar system history, if Van Flandern turned out to be correct,
would be nothing less than staggering: one immediate effect would be
to call into question the true genesis of asteroids once again... after
most astronomers had thought their origins were long since settled.
The immediate reaction of Van Flandern's colleagues, not only
to his observations but his published scientific papers on the subject,
was predictable: rejection: not only was there now strong, compelling
evidence (the astronomical community believed) for a primordial origin
for all asteroids and comets (as billions-of-years-old fragments of
a "proto-planet," which never truly formed), there was (in
their minds) the complete absence of any known energy source strong
enough to completely detonate "a planet." Unlike the sun (or
other stars), nuclear fusion was (and is) deemed theoretically impossible
in planets, so Van Flandern's "exploded planet model" lacked
any known mechanism to "explode!" Undaunted by such theoretical
considerations (after all, science is supposed to be built on verifiable,
testable observations, not pre-conceived notions about what is or is
not "possible"), Tom Van Flandern set about quietly accumulating
centuries of cometary observations, coupled with the latest radar and
NASA spacecraft observations of the asteroids. Despite the (then) lack
of theoretical energy resources adequate to detonate a planet, Van Flandern's
calculations, coupled with his reading of the spacecraft data, convinced
him more each day that -- novel energy sources notwithstanding -- both
comets and asteroids were somehow jointly formed in a gargantuan primordial
explosion circa 3 million years ago... of a much more massive, former
planetary member of the solar system.
All scientific models, to be deemed "scientific,"
must be testable; in other words, they must contain specific predictions
against which later observations ultimately can be compared. Van Flandern's
developing model of "a planet that one day decided to blow up"
turned out to contain ample observational predictions (apart from the
resulting solar system orbits of the "pieces"); the most striking
prediction was that both comets and asteroids, if they originated as
fragments of a formerly "exploding" planet, should have company...
they should be intimately associated with a cloud of orbiting companion
fragments -- all circling around each other, as the center of gravity
of each resulting "fragment cloud" also orbits the center
of the solar system.
Because both asteroids and comets are literally only miles across
(as opposed to planets, which measure thousands of times larger), directly
seeing these tiny orbiting companions from the Earth has proven all-but-impossible.
Historical "occultation" observations of asteroids, as they
pass across chance background stars, has only given tantalizing hints
of the existence of such invisible companions ("asteroid satellites,"
as they've been termed), causing some stars to blink on an off rapidly
during rare encounters; are these tiny satellites, briefly obscuring
background starlight in "satellite eclipses," as the fragments
pass across the star? No one's really sure. What's occurring deep inside
a comet -- pictured in Van Flandern's model also as a similar host of
"whirling fragments" circling each other (above), but this
time generating clouds of evaporated water and other gasses as they
are heated by strong sunlight, that ultimately expands as visible cometary
"tails" typically measuring millions of times longer -- is
even more impossible to accurately determine with existing observations...
at least so far, from Earth.
The critical nature of these observations for testing
major aspects of Van Flandern's theory hinges on the crucial method
of proposed comet/asteroid satellite formation: for the asteroids (in
the prevailing "mainstream" model), Van Flandern's colleagues
previously argued that such proposed companions (if they were found
to occur) would be created by occasional collision of one asteroid with
another. "Not so," responded Van Flandern, the celestial mechanics
expert. According to his detailed orbital calculations "random
asteroid collisions are too violent to form stable, long-term satellites;
to form such long-term orbits (for at least several million years...)
such companion fragments can only be drawn from the expanding debris-cloud
of the original exploding planet (see below)... as the pieces sweep
outward from the center of the explosion, gently capturing (by mutual
gravitational interactions) other nearby pieces that are moving outward
with small relative velocities in "almost the same direction..."
Comet nuclei, on the other hand (in the prevailing "Whipple"
model -named in the 1950's after a well-known Harvard astronomer, Dr.
Fred C. Whipple), were generally viewed prior to Van Flandern as simply
"single, dirty icebergs": frozen bits of the original solar
system nebula (containing LOTS of water) that did not form a planet
but continued orbiting the sun. As they occasionally approached the
center of the solar system (nudged into infalling orbits by distant
passing stars, in this prevailing model) these "bergy bits"
would be heated by increasing sunlight as they approached the inner
solar system -- resulting in a spectacular release of their trapped
gasses into space (below)... and the production of the brilliant "comet's
tail" -- pushed opposite the sun by the sheer pressure of raw,
unfiltered sunlight.
The occasional "splitting" of these cometary nuclei, observed
with Earth-bound telescopes over the years, was ascribed (in the mainstream"
model) to the uneven solar heating of this nucleus from intense sunlight
-- resulting in thermal stresses that (combined with tidal action from
the sun) resulted sometimes in a spectac-ular break-up of this "dirty
iceberg."
Van Flandern argues differently: cometary nuclei "break
up," he insists, because the increasing gravitational force of
the sun (as the comet sweeps inward from the outer solar system) eventually
strips away the loosely-bound "cometary satellites" orbiting
that nucleus. Depending on the mass of the objects and how far apart
they're orbiting each other, at some point solar gravity "wins"
over the weak force between the cometary objects... and the resulting
cometary "free agents" then take up separate orbits of the
sun themselves -- each one becoming another, separate comet!
Van Flandern points out that this "splitting" phenomenon has
also occurred when comets pass too close to planets; the most notable
recent example was Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's 1993 encounter with the
massive Jupiter, which resulted in 21 separate "fragments"
being split (in the mainstream model) from the previously single "iceberg."
According to Van Flandern, the calculable Jovian tidal forces on this
comet at the time it fragmented were actually insufficient to "tear
it apart" (which was the official NASA version for the splitting);
what really separated the (previously unobservable) 21 fragments, he
argues, was the Jovian gravity field simply shearing off the orbiting
satellites into separate, parallel orbits -- as the comet dove deep
into the gravity "well" of Jupiter (right), and the resulting
tides overwhelmed the individual gravitational attraction of the Shoemaker-Levy
9 satellites to each other.
The first breakthrough for Van Flandern came in late August, 1993. At
that time, on its way to Jupiter (where it wouldn't arrive until December,
1995), the unmanned Galileo spacecraft flew by the second of two targeted
asteroids en route: 33-mile diameter "243 Ida." The TV images
relayed from the 6300-mile "Ida fly-by" instantly banished
all further mainstream doubts as to whether asteroids have "satellite
companions": Ida turned out to possess a mile-wide satellite (left,
in circle), soon dubbed "Dactyl" (derived from Greek mythology
regarding beings, called "Dactyli," who lived on Mount Ida
in the company of Zeus). Debate instantly began regarding whether this
was just a "fluke": were "asteroid satellites" truly
common, or was Ida somehow "special?" Van Flandern wryly observed
soon after, in Sky and Telescope Magazine: "Those with a good sense
of the laws of probability must realize that finding a moon of an asteroid
during only the second spacecraft encounter with one [in
the entire history of the space program] implies that these minor satellites
are at least not rare [emphasis added]."
In the face of these "probabilities," the long-time
opponents of such satellites eventually turned to what confirmation
of Dactyl's existence now "proved"; after denying for decades
that any asteroids could (or did!) possess such satellites, these astronomers
now argued that they had predicted them "all along"... as
"a natural consequence of asteroidal collisions." Ignored
in this rising debate was Van Flandern's clear priority, as well as
his detailed celestial mechanics calculations effectively eliminating
such a "trivial" origin for this new class of solar system
objects; in fact, the discovery of Ida's "moon" effectively
opened the door, in 1993, to the awesome implications standing behind
the entire, long-denied existence of such satellites... that Ida (and
thousands of other asteroids, yet unseen in close-up) had acquired "moons"
during that almost unimaginable millions-of-years-old "event"
which was the source of Ida's own existence: the explosion of a major
member of the solar system... sometime in this solar system's "recent"
past!
Which brings us, then, to "comets."
Even before the distant appearance beyond Jupiter of "Hale-Bopp,"
in 1995, the 1994 "smash ending" to Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's
existence in the atmosphere of Jupiter (see IR image of 20,000 mile-diameter
impact shockwave, right) -- one year after its dramatic "fragmentation"
on its first approach to the solar system's largest planet -- contained
all sorts of vital clues to the correctness of Van Flandern's model:
from the "fragmentation" of the nucleus during its initial
approach in 1993, to the first scientific data from the 21 fragments'
fiery impact into Jupiter, in July of 1994: ground-based and spacecraft
data indicated the almost complete absence of any water in the impacting
fragments! This meant that Shoemaker-Levy 9 was NOT a "water-laden,
frozen iceberg" at all -- but much more like an asteroid; this,
in turn, implied that it was "made of sterner stuff" than
merely ice, strongly implying that Jupiter's tidal forces during that
first encounter truly would have been even more ineffective in causing
"fragmentation!" This left only "departing asteroid satellites,"
under conflicting Jovian gravity, as a reasonable explanation for Shoemaker-Levy
9's extraordinary dynamical behavior, in 1993 and 1994...
Score another one for Van Flandern.
Of course, the mainstream astronomical community didn't credit
him with anything; conventional explanations and mundane reports of
Shoemaker-Levy 9's behavior still abound: all insisting that it was
simply "torn apart by Jupiter's overwhelming gravity" as it
approached the planet.
Which brings us to Hale-Bopp.
Even if it wasn't the most visually spectacular comet of this
century, the remarkably dynamic details of Hale-Bopp's internal structure
-- as revealed by the now literally thousands of images filling the
Internet from amateur and professional astronomers around the world
-- would assure it's place in history; more important: these details
seem to be on the verge of providing vital confirmation of Van Flandern's
crucial cometary model... if not confirmation of the catastrophic planetary
model "lurking in the wings" behind it.
These extensive images, acquired as Hale-Bopp passed closest
to the sun and Earth, are revealing regular, systematic processes occurring
inside the nuclear region of Hale-Bopp that now defy "easy, trivial
explanations" (such as nuclear rotation); these remarkable observations
(see below) most easily can only be explained by the presence of one
(or more!) "large satellites" in orbit in the Hale Bopp nucleus
-- exactly as Van Flandern has maintained for over 20 years!
In examining a wide variety of Hale-Bopp images now available
across the Web, two striking facts have become apparent to this writer:
the total absence of any recent, large-scale, detailed close-ups of
the nuclear region of Hale-Bopp, taken with a major telescope (2 meters,
and up), including NASA Hubble imaging; and the startling, highly rhythmic
"wave-like" behavior of this critical central region of the
comet, even in the smaller-scale amateur imaging that is available.
Close examination of several
time-lapse "movies" that are available from the existing
imaging (and subsequent analysis by The Enterprise Mission) has allowed
us to infer important information regarding processes occurring in this
nuclear region, below the resolution limits of the imaging itself. Processes
that now strongly imply the presence of one or more "Van Flandern
satellites" orbiting in the central region of Hale-Bopp.
(Additional
Animations)
The process is akin to the widely-accepted practice in the astronomical
community of discerning features in the central parts of galaxies, or
details taking place in binary star systems, directly invisible to current
imaging Earthbound technology; by applying known laws of physics and
orbital dynamics to the existing Hale-Bopp images, the resulting behavior
of the material streaming out of the nuclear region of the comet (that
can be seen), can be "traced back" to a reasonable model of
what's "invisibly" causing this behavior. Thus, in this way
we are putting forth evidence here of striking dynamical behavior vis
a vis Hale-Bopp, which now strongly implies the existence of one or
more satellites orbiting inside the nuclear region, currently below
the resolution threshold of existing imagery.
The key is in those remarkable "waves" widely
observed emanating from the nucleus. Comparison of similar-scaled images
of Halley's Comet (1986) and Hale-Bopp (1997) reveal dramatic differences
(see below); Halley's image is highlighted by several "jets"
apparently emanating from a single nucleus(left); the various representations
of Hale-Bopp's image (right; and "double-plate," below) on
the other hand, is characterized by a striking set of precisely-controlled
waves -relentlessly marching outward from the nucleus of Hale-Bopp like
a "ripple-tank" demonstration in a laboratory here on Earth!
The standard model for a cometary nucleus envisions a single "iceberg,"
blowing off material via a series of "sun-activated jets"
(below, left), while Van Flandern's "satellite model" is entirely
different -- a central object, orbited by one or more smaller satellites...
amid a cloud of additional orbiting "stuff" (below, right).
A comparison of these two models with the previous real images (above),
clearly supports the "single object, jet-like model" for the
Halley's Comet single nucleus... and a very different process apparently
occurring deep inside Hale-Bopp's central region. It is highly tempting
to ascribe the highly ordered image of Hale-Bopp to the precisely-controlled
physics expected of a rhythmically-orbiting set of objects in its nucleus...
i.e. Van Flandern's satellites!
The key to deciding if Van Flandern's model is correct vis a vis
Hale-Bopp (at least until much higher-definition images are officially
released), would seem to lie in clever application of known astronomy
and physics to the "unobservable." Surprisingly, if you compare
the currently visible activity within the nucleus of Hale-Bopp (below,
left and bottom) with a model of a double-star system ejecting an expanding
atmosphere past one of its companions via gravitational effects through
the "L-2 lobe" (below, right) -- the resulting comparison
is eerily similar to time-lapse motion images of Hale-Bopp!
The implications for both Van Flandern's "satellite model,"
as well as a shattering, potential "hidden catastrophic solar system
history," is obvious...
Stay tuned.