The Biggest
Ocean
Sam Aurelius Milam III
The
more I learn about the universe, the less likely it all seems. Even
our own little solar system doesn't seem very likely. Of course,
some philosopher commented that, if something happens, then it must be
possible. So, however unlikely it might seem, here we are.
So
far as I'm aware, most of the scientific theories about the origin of the
solar system posit the existence, billions of years ago, of an enormous
cloud of dust. I suggested how that could happen in my essay Cosmology
and the Law of Parsimony. It's available on Pharos.
Supposedly,
the bits and pieces of dust of which that cloud was composed gradually
fell together, because of their mutual gravitational attractions.
They formed bigger clumps of dust which also gradually fell together, and
so forth. Here's a problem. Given the presumably random dispersal
of dust, why didn't it all just fall together into one big clump, at the
center? What caused some of the bits of dust to avoid the center
and, instead, fall into orbits around the center? I don't see any
logical explanation for that. It should have been just the sun in
the center, and nothing more.
Maybe
the original cloud of dust was spinning. I don't know why it would
have been spinning but, if it was, then that might have caused some of
the clumps to fall into orbits. Most of the bits and pieces fell
into the center, and became the sun. Some of them fell into orbits,
and became planets.
Here's
another problem. Pieces of debris in lower orbits around the sun
would have had higher orbital speeds. Pieces of debris in higher
orbits around the sun would have had lower orbital speeds. Every
time that a piece of debris from a lower solar orbit fell onto our growing
planet, it would have been moving faster than the planet. On impact,
it would most likely have exerted a clockwise force on the planet, as viewed
from what we now think of as the north. Pieces of debris from orbits
further from the sun, moving slower than the planet, would probably have
had the same effect, as would the internal forces associated with the Roche
Limit. The result is that our planet and, indeed, any planet should
spin in the direction opposite to the direction of its orbit. So
far as I'm aware, in our solar system, only Venus and Uranus do that.
Our planet spins backwards.
Also,
why do scientists claim that the planet started as a molten mass and cooled
at the surface, leaving a molten core? Why would it originally be
hot? All of the original debris was floating around in open space,
where things are cold. There might have been some heating at each
impact but energy dissipates. Given billions of years of accumulation,
there was ample time for cooling between impacts. I don't see any
reason why the planet would have started out hot. I believe that
it started out cold and that the core became molten later, if it's molten
at all. Maybe only the mantle is molten. We don't know that
for sure.
If
the planet has a molten core, then what heated it? Consider this.
The planet stretches about a foot toward the moon, due to lunar gravity.
One foot isn't much, but that stretch travels around the planet, continuously,
every day. After a few billion years of stretching and squeezing,
heat accumulated. I believe that the interior of the planet was heated
by lunar tidal forces, after they both were formed.
Speaking
of the moon, why is it in such a nearly circular orbit? Why are any
of the orbiting bodies in such nearly circular orbits? Why are the
orbits, mostly, so nearly in the plane of the ecliptic? Why is there
even a plane of the ecliptic? Given the original random accumulation
of dust, it's all way too neat. Was the dust cloud not random after
all? Was it a spinning disk of dust rather than a spinning random
accumulation of dust? If so, then why?
Nothing
about the solar system really seems likely. The more I learn, the
more questions I have. Stephen Hawking commented that, in an infinite
universe, all things are equally probable. That could be taken to
mean that nothing is unlikely, however unlikely it might seem. Maybe
our solar system is unique in the universe. Maybe the universe is
littered with such solar systems. I don't know.
James
Thurber noted that it's better to know some of the questions than to know
all of the answers. Indeed, a man who knows all of the answers probably
hasn't heard all of the questions. Sir Isaac Newton commented that
he felt like a boy on a beach, finding smoother pebbles and prettier shells,
while the ocean of truth waited nearby, undiscovered. The universe
is the biggest ocean. Maybe it's inherently unknowable. Maybe
questions are the closest that we'll ever get to understanding it.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
April 2017 |
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