Much is given and much can be learned from our life sustainer, the Sun. Solar Nebula Theory is the leading theory explaining the formation and history of the Sun and Solar System. While it’s clear the planets formed in a Solar Nebula, I believe there is more to the story and more can be understood about the Solar System if we re-think and re-examine the life journey of our Sun and it’s growth through the main sequence. I believe comets and Kuiper Belt Objects were infinitely more abundant earlier in the Solar System, and played a more integral part in the history of the Sun.
I believe the heavy and late bombardment period wasn’t a clearing of the Solar Nebula, but a massive influx (or bombardment) of primarily Comets and KBO’s. In our haste to understand and refine Solar Nebula Theory, I believe we have overlooked other possibilities of what the heavy and late bombardment periods could have been, and what effects it could have had on our Sun and in turn, the rest of the planets.
I believe the “debris disks” of low density cold dust and gas found around mature stars such as Beta Pictoris, Epsilon Eridani and Favorite Star Vega, could be examples of these stars undergoing a heavy and late bombardment period of their own. I believe there is evidence that the Sun experienced such a secondary debris disk after becoming mature, and cooled; perhaps quite substantially, and later experienced a large, and either sudden or successive stage increase in luminosity in a sort of reignition event.
This hypothesis examines possible evidence for such a sequence occurring, and hopefully raises discussion for further study about it’s possibility.
Obviously, central to this story is that of comets. When the Sun is in it’s protostellar stage we know the rapidly spinning disk produces powerful bipolar flows that push into the interstellar medium. These powerful jets shoot into space and produce the umbrella shaped glowing blobs known as the Herbig-Haro objects. What I believe happened in our Solar System is, once our Sun passed through the protostellar stage (and even before), the Herbig-Haro objects mixed with the gas and dust in the interstellar medium, cooled and whether by means of the Sun’s gravity, a passing star, or both, somehow descended and reconnected to form what is now known as the Oort Cloud.
Common sense would dictate that, if the umbrellas of the Herbig-Haro objects connected they would form a sphere; which is exactly what the Oort Cloud is. Evidence is found in the composition of comets themselves. Most comets come from the Oort Cloud and, as the “Stardust” and “Deep Impact” spacecraft missions showed, some of the dust in comet nuclei is crystalline and/or made of high temperature minerals that could have only formed near the Sun. I believe it’s because they did, in a protostar, and they were ejected into deep space from the bipolar jets produced by a protostellar disk, mixed with the matter in the interstellar medium and eventually became comets.
Supposing a relatively young Sun (which would have been 1 to 0.5 Billion years old) experienced a massive bombardment of comets and KBO’s such as this. What could happen? A debris disk of cold and dusty gas similar to it’s protostellar cocoon would form around the Sun and, of course, it would begin to become inundated with a large amount of this cold gas and matter. The gas in the chromosphere, being cooled, would become heavier and begin to compress the star in it’s own sort of gravitational collapse.
Now, we know the concept of balance is crucial in a star, as they are held together by their own gravity balanced by the support of their internal heat and pressure. In this event the pressure-temperature thermostat would be greatly disturbed and would obviously require adjustments throughout the star. Assuming, for the sake of arguement, that the structure of the photosphere was somehow different before this event, the photosphere could have then adopted it’s granulation structure out of necessity in a desperate (and efficient) reaction to maintain the hydrostatic equilibrium and adjust the pressure temperature thermostat.
Remember, the chromosphere would be getting colder and heavier, compressing the photosphere and the entire star. The granulation structure would be a more efficient and arguably faster way of transporting heat energy from inside the Sun to both the cooling photosphere itself and the even cooler chromosphere; which would be necessary to keep the star alive. More importantly, it offers a more efficient design and method of maintaining pressure while supporting the added weight of the chromosphere, in the vein of an egg crate or honeycomb, by distributing the weight over a number of smaller surfaces.
Knowing that the debris disk would have been largely around the Sun’s middle third (equator), could the cooling and consequent reheating process under such circumstances be responsible for the differential rotation we see, most prominently around the equator belt, but also around all layers of the Sun? Could a reignition sequence of the Sun better explain why the corona and chromosphere are hotter than the photosphere? All of this is speculative, and someone more qualified than I could better understand it’s feasability. But the exciting evidence of this event is that found throughout the Solar System.
If the Sun cooled and later experienced a reignition and a large increase of luminosity, what would happen? The solar constant would increase dramatically, along with the radiation pressure and solar wind. The planets, from the surface to their core, would heat. Evidence of such an event can first be found on Mercury. There we find a geological mystery known as “The Spider”, a medium sized crater which has ridges extending from it in all directions like spokes of a wheel or spider legs.
I believe, during this reignition event, with the surface of Mercury heated, a projectile (possibly molten) hit the planet. When it broke apart, the intense solar wind, that would occur in such an event pushed the pieces outward in all diretions, like a blowdryer focused on a puddle of water, which formed the spider leg pattern.
The “Lobate Scarps”, known to have formed after the heavy and late bombardment period and unique to Mercury, could be better explained as a consequence of the drastic heating and then cooling of the planet that would occur in such event.
EARTH, VENUS and the MOON
Now, with the increase of the solar constant, the dynamo effect would increase the gravitational strength of every planet, and they would all interact with each other more intensely.
To start, I believe our moon used to orbit Venus and probably formed there. The shield volcanoes on Venus flow with highly fluid lava made of basalt. Most Moon rocks are composed of basalt. If the Moon once lived in this neighborhood and formed there, it could explain the numerous similarities the Moon has with Mercury, and also, why Moon rocks differ so much in chemical composition from those found on Earth.
During this reignition event Earth and Venus would interact intensely. I believe the Moon was in the middle of this, an object of a sort of tug of war between planets. In this tug of war, the axis of Earth slowly inclined to the 23.5 degrees it is at now, and the tectonic plates formed from the intense stress put on Earth’s crust. I believe Earth eventually stripped Venus of the Moon, causing Venus to be the only planet that rotates in a retrograde direction. The Moon’s crust is thinner on the side that faces earth and could be further evidence of such an event. This would also explain the Moon’s inclined orbit around Earth.
This could possibly lead to a better understanding of the Cambrian Explosion, which could be a way to date this reignition’s occurrence. If this sequence occurred in such a way, it would mean a convergence of many necessary variables to possibly catalyze the Cambrian Explosion. Consider if preceding the Cambrian Explosion this reignition event occurred. This would be when the Moon was introduced to the Earth and the Earth received it’s inclined axis. Earth’s inclined axis is the sole reason we have seasons, which we see are so vital to life on Earth today.
The Moon Governs the tides and plays a part in the oceans’ currents, among other things. Here, the earth could have found a slightly new orbit around the Sun, settled into a regular and steady 24 hour day, been introduced to seasons and regular pronounced weather and ocean current systems. But, arguably, the most important part of this scenario would be the effects from the Sun.
In this reignition event the Earth would experience a change in radiation from the Sun, from a possible long wave infrared radiation, back to the shortwave radiation we see today. In such an event, the Sun would also be emitting massive amounts of hydrogen and helium, among other elements. Hydrogen is the key component to almost everything on Earth. But, after the formation of bacteria over the billions of years, this bacteria was desperate for hydrogen. If in this event a fresh supply was introduced to the biosphere, could that be the catalyst necessary, along with the previously mentioned variables, to set the events of the Cambrian Explosion in motion? Could this reignition event better explain all of the sulfuric acid clouds we find in the atmosphere of Venus? Note that Venus last finished resurfacing 0.5 Billion years ago, which could fit in the timeline of such a sequence.
THE JOVIAN PLANETS
I believe evidence of this reignition event can also be found in the Jovian planets. Certain icy bodies trapped between these planets during this event could have broken apart in such a gravitational tug of war and formed the rings we find around each Jovian planet, of which are most beautifully displayed in the rings found around Saturn.
Saturn’s rings are sequenced in 3 main divisions, with the largest chunks close to the planet and the next 2 rings increasingly smaller as they progress outward in perfect proportion from large to small. Whether this signifies that such an event took place in successive stages, I don’t know. But, if an icy body near Saturn broke apart in this event, Jupiter would be pulling on the ice as well. Being closer to Saturn, Saturn’s greater influence could have pulled the larger chunks in closer, and Jupiter’s influence would help extend them outward. Or, if this event occurred in stages, maybe the sorting of the rings could reflect the intensity of each stage. Furthermore, the rings appear as waves formed in ringlets, and while Saturn’s moons create some of them and govern them, could their wave form in general be evidence of this gravitational event, frozen in time?
And what of those moons of Saturn and Jupiter? The largest and innermost moons orbit in a regular and prograde direction. But some of the smaller and outer moons, known as the “irregular satellites”, have retrograde and highly inclined orbits. If a moon small enough and far enough away from either planet was caught in this event, and in turn, was stripped from one planet by the other, such an exchanging could explain some of the retrograde and highly inclined orbits we see in these irregular satellites. The smaller and outer moons would be the exact type of candidates that would exist in that zone of vulnerability during an increased gravitational strength of the planets.
This event could also be responsible for the cloud bands found on these planets. In this event, the large moons of Jupiter would have an intense tidal lock on the planet from the increased gravitational interaction. Orbiting in a regular prograde direction, such a moon could create a prograde direction of flow in that cloud back which it’s tidal lock governed. But Jupiter being so large, the moons would leave gaps. And when the bands, not in any intense tidal lock with any moon, passed by Saturn, Saturn’s gravitational lock could have moved those sections in a retrograde direction.
I believe the Jovian planets gained much of their gaseous mass during this event. In such and event, massive amounts of hydrogen and helium would be emitted from the Sun. When it crossed the ice line, Jupiter and Saturn would be the first planets encountered. Could any of the Jovian planets have gained any mass in such a situation? Could the cloud bands have formed during this gaining of mass? How much could they gain? Certainly, Jupiter could have possibly gained more, as it is first in line. We see Jupiter is bigger than Saturn. Could this possibly be why? Could their large hydrogen and helium composition and that of their atmospheres be partly due to this? I believe such a scenario could better solve the Jovian problem.
A reignition event like this, and the intense gravitational interactions between planets that would accompany it, would also better explain the oblateness and even proportion of oblateness found in the Jovian planets. Planets pulling on each other intensely certainly could cause such a shape. This could even better explain the slightly elliptical orbits we find in all of the planets.