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Leading Theory of Solar System's Formation Just Disproven (forbes.com)

StartsWithABang writes: In 2005, scientists put forth the Nice Model to explain the configuration of the Solar System's planets. It was thought that the outer planets, Jupiter in particular, migrated through the inner Solar System, and were then pulled back out by the presence of the outer giants, causing the late heavy bombardment of the terrestrial planets as it crossed the asteroid belt. But not only are extra gas giants that have since been ejected required to explain the outer worlds, but the migration would have ejected the inner, terrestrial worlds, indicating that the rocky planets finished forming after the gas giants were already in place. R.I.P., Nice Model: 2005-2015.

73 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. frisyt by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    No doubt the actual article says something completely different, but I can't be arsed to read it.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:frisyt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      No doubt the actual article says something completely different, but I can't be arsed to read it.

      No, the actual article also just says "frisyt". Surprised me too.

    2. Re:frisyt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      At least the writer didn't title it "Nice Model Not So Nice After All".

    3. Re:frisyt by delt0r · · Score: 1

      You will do well here.

      --
      If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  2. And? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

    So a model gets discarded because it won't work. Nothing to see here.

    The proposition of a new model will make a better slashdot article.

    1. Re:And? by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      Of course there's something to see here. If you never hear that this model has been disproven then people can go on to throw it out as plausible later.

      A theory being disproven - particularly one that was highly regarded - is very much newsworthy.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    2. Re:And? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

      "So a model gets discarded because it won't work. Nothing to see here."

      Fortunately, this model is in a discipline which has not gone political. We can make changes to it without holding any Maoist show trials where researchers get called "deniers."

    3. Re:And? by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "So a model gets discarded because it won't work. Nothing to see here."

      Fortunately, this model is in a discipline which has not gone political. We can make changes to it without holding any Maoist show trials where researchers get called "deniers."

      I don't know about that. The status of Pluto seems/ed to be pretty political.

    4. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Of course you'd say that, Pluto Denier!

    5. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The status of Pluto seems/ed to be pretty political.

      It is political, but it isn't really science. The status of Pluto amounts to classification for jargon purposes, and has no impact on the science of what Pluto is and its significance. It just amounts to what wording scientists need to use when discussing groups of solar system things in science literature. Not all classification schemes in science have the same significance in meaning, and many come down to just convenience.

    6. Re:And? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I don't know about that. The status of Pluto seems/ed to be pretty political.

      Part of the problem is that star scientists voted to reclassify Pluto without involving planet scientists in the decision. Why the world should listen to them however, I have never understood.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    7. Re:And? by david_thornley · · Score: 2

      Researchers are rarely called "deniers". That particular epithet applies to those who disregard the science because it makes them emotionally uncomfortable or might cut into their profits or something.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    8. Re:And? by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      Where are there Maoist show trials where researchers are called deniers? Is this what the insane global warming deniers now pretend is the case? The Conservative cult is highly motivated to never engage with reality, all for the profits of those who so easily manipulate Conservative superstitions. Their whole house of delusions would crumble if they engaged any critical thinking skills instead of immersing themselves in conspiracy theories.

    9. Re:And? by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I suspect you're replying to a global warming denier. He seems to have a paranoid perspective that sees delusional people as just having a different belief.

    10. Re:And? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Because clearly someone who can't even manage to make an account is more of an expert than actual planetary scientists:

      http://www.space.com/12710-plu...

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    11. Re:And? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      There is a "thumbnail" (not a formal paper, but a good undergraduate level explanation) of the Pluto decision by one of TFA's authors (Hal Levison). I have always preferred the materials science POV for defining "planet" (i.e., it has self-gravitated to a rough sphere) over the IAU's complex criteria, but after reading Levison's "thumbnail" I am much less opposed to the IAU definition than I was 6 months ago. (For context, I've been interested in Planetary Science since the mid-80s, which includes this question.)

      Levison's "thumbnail" ; he used the term "hand waving" ; [SHRUG].

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    12. Re:And? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      I do not understand how you could make this assertion, if you actually listened to the arguments at the time (I did).

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  3. Soo... This proves or disproves the Bible? by denzacar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can someone sum it up in a more tabloid-click-bait-like form for me?

    "You won't believe how Solar system ACTUALLY formed..." or some such thing.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:Soo... This proves or disproves the Bible? by swb · · Score: 4, Funny

      "A bunch of straight, old, white professors thought the solar system formed this way, and then a blind, black, transgender, muslim girl proved them wrong. You won't believe their reaction!"

    2. Re:Soo... This proves or disproves the Bible? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      How much more clickbait can you get than "StartsWithABang writes:" ?

    3. Re:Soo... This proves or disproves the Bible? by Xenx · · Score: 1

      Around here, that would be a bit disingenuous.. aye?

    4. Re:Soo... This proves or disproves the Bible? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      I'm surprised - almost astonished - that StartsWithABang didn't do this itself, and linked to Medium or Vice (I forget which is it's forte). I wonder if it's feeling well, or gets paid more by Forbes (the commercial link included).

      I may well pay more attention to it's submissions now, instead of binning them on seeing the attribution.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  4. Interesting cosmic pinball by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

    The "cosmic pinball" of the larger planets ejecting other planets from the solar system is fascinating. If such ejections are common in different star systems, it might explain the startling number of planets and planetoids that are _not_ in orbits around stars being discovered as orbital telescopes improve. Most of these planets were too cool, and too small, to be detected until quite recently, The advent of infrared telescopes, and of extremely stable orbital telescopes to detect very small, non-luminescent interstellar objects have exposed thousands of such exoplanets.

    I've suggested that if they're common, they might explain the "dark matter" problem of cosmology:namely, a reservoir of matter around galaxies that is impossible to detect by normal means, but doesn't require any exotic, unverified forms of matter to explain.

    1. Re:Interesting cosmic pinball by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      The mass of everything else in the solar system doesn't approach the mass of the sun. Interstellar planets could never have enough mass to account for dark matter, which is supposed to be 73% of the universe by mass.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    2. Re:Interesting cosmic pinball by lgw · · Score: 2

      I've suggested that if they're common, they might explain the "dark matter" problem of cosmology:namely, a reservoir of matter around galaxies that is impossible to detect by normal means, but doesn't require any exotic, unverified forms of matter to explain.

      Sorry, dark matter explains three observations: galactic rotation rates, the balance of matter in the early universe (as observed in the CMBR), and gravitational lensing where there is no visible matter. And it explains the first two of those in a way that matches quantitatively.

      We know (as much as we know anything in science) that most of the matter in the early universe was not made from electrons and protons, sorry. Whatever its nature may be, most of the matter in the universe doesn't interact with light in any way.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    3. Re:Interesting cosmic pinball by HiThere · · Score: 1

      IIRC, there have been a few found, or possibly found. (Free planets are quite hard to see, and you can't get repeated observations.)

      The real problem is that "dark matter", whatever it may be, is non-baryonic. I.e., it doesn't contain protons. And electrons are so light that you can't plausibly make it out of combinations of leptons (e.g. an electron bound to a tau-positron).

      That said, I've never heard it explicitly stated that it must be non-quarkish matter, so perhaps it's made of quarks in some stable configuration larger than triplets. But IFAIK so far all attempts to detect such entities (outside of accelerators) have failed.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    4. Re:Interesting cosmic pinball by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      I've suggested that if they're common, they might explain the "dark matter" problem of cosmology:namely, a reservoir of matter around galaxies that is impossible to detect by normal means, but doesn't require any exotic, unverified forms of matter to explain.

      This was a viable proposition in the late 1970s - as the "missing mass problem was going from "are our measurements correct" to "our measurements and our theories don't add up" - resulting in several surveys looking for evidence of cold, lumpy matter. In particular the search for MAssive Compact Halo Objects ("MACHO") was targeted at exactly this question.

      MACHO didn't find anything like enough matter. It did find several interesting "transiting, free-flying planet" signals, whereas it would need to have hundreds or thousands to account for the missing mass. I think the programme is still running, but for constraining planetary populations, not explaining the cosmological problems.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    5. Re:Interesting cosmic pinball by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      > MACHO didn't find anything like enough matter

      I must admit that I'm also not thoroughly convinced about the amounts of matter they need to find. The cosmology of the expanding universe is _extremely_ vulnerable to small measurement errors. Even numbers like the Hubble Constant are still being refined, and the gravitational analyses and behavioral analyses of galaxies billions of years old and billions of lightyears distant is vulnerable to many distortions and misanalyses. There comes a point in the deduction of extraordinary solutions, such as the speculative forms of "dark matter", that you need to pause, apply Occam's Razor, and ask "Did I measure this right in the first place? Or is my instrument mistuned?".

    6. Re:Interesting cosmic pinball by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      The amounts of "missing mass" needed to account for the orbital velocity profiles of spiral galaxies is around an order of magnitude greater than the upper limit of non-luminous compact matter detected by MACHO surveys. Other surveys looking at luminous matter and dispersed non-luminous matter (dust clouds and gas nebulae) also didn't find enough matter to explain the discrepancy between the apparently present gravitating mass, and the inventory of luminous and non-luminous matter.

      you need to pause, apply Occam's Razor, and ask "Did I measure this right in the first place? Or is my instrument mistuned?".

      Your lack of conviction is noted. Have fun getting it past a funding allocation committee.

      People spent decades working through these arguments in the 1970s and 1980s, designing experiments and instruments to investigate exactly these questions, then publishing the details. That wheel has been thoroughly investigated and found to be circular, to within a couple of % (better than the wheels on your car probably). To try another metaphor - that dwarf is standing there, asking you to climb onto it's shoulders so you can see further.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  5. The "Moon": A Ridiculous Liberal Myth by slashdice · · Score: 5, Funny

    It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)

    Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.

    Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!

    Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.

    --
    Copyright (c) 1990 - 2014 Dice. All rights reserved. Use of this comment is subject to certain Terms and Conditions.
    1. Re:The "Moon": A Ridiculous Liberal Myth by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      The flaw in your scenario is that it would require liberals to use technology.

    2. Re:The "Moon": A Ridiculous Liberal Myth by PPH · · Score: 1

      before 1950. That is when it was initially launched.

      OK. But I was taught the Nazis launched it at the end of WWII. And it rotates to keep one face toward the Earth so we can't see their base on the other side.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    3. Re:The "Moon": A Ridiculous Liberal Myth by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      You actually believe that people have launched satellites? I hope you at least have a crossbow in your desk drawer.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  6. If a tree falls over in the forrest by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

    And there's nobody there to hear it

    Will there be a slashdot post about it?

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  7. Re:Bollocks! The Asteroid Belt and Kuiper Belt is by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 1

    Dr. Velikovsky, you really should sign up for a named account.

  8. Play nice! by rmdingler · · Score: 1
    Surprisingly enough, the summary is a bit misleading.

    tldr: It appears the 2005 explanation for the formation of our little solar system isn't completely dead;

    it merely requires an additional gas giant or some other tweaking to explain the existence of the four inner rocky worlds, including earth.

    It's still fascinating how advanced we are as a life form to begin to question the origin of everything.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Play nice! by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      It's still fascinating how advanced we are as a life form to begin to question the origin of everything.

      Come now, we've been questioning the origin of everything since we could talk. What do you think "religion" is all about?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re:Play nice! by Anna+Merikin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The five senses we humans possess are those which allowed us to adapt to our environment and live in it; there is no reason for me to believe they are sufficient to explain our universe.
      That is, if we are smart enough in the first place, which is very, very doubtful.

      I would add to Socrates' famous quotation, "All I know is I know nothing," the phrase, "and I can't even be sure of that."

    3. Re:Play nice! by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Well, strictly speaking religion is a bit more about where we go to then where we came from ;D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re:Play nice! by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      The five senses we humans possess are those which allowed us to adapt to our environment and live in it; there is no reason for me to believe they are sufficient to explain our universe.

      Very eloquently said.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    5. Re:Play nice! by Maritz · · Score: 1

      It's still fascinating how advanced we are as a life form to begin to question the origin of everything.

      I'd love to agree on how amazing our advancement is but our inability to deal with real existential threats is anything but advanced.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    6. Re:Play nice! by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Yeah I think he'd find it hard to put a name to the claim that large impact don't happen any more, as it would be a profoundly silly thing to say.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    7. Re:Play nice! by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      Religion is a set of fantasy-based, absurd fake explanations. Sticking with fake explanations that give you the warm fuzzies is the opposite of questioning origins.

    8. Re:Play nice! by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      More to the point, it's about pretending that we don't really have to die because people can't cope with how temporary our existence is, but it usually also comes with an origin story.

    9. Re:Play nice! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Who's to say the ants have not already figured out the origins of the universe? They just lack opposable thumbs and don't care to tell us. Mayhap they've already tried to tell us or they keep it to themselves as a collective knowledge store amongst their individual groups?

      Or, I could just be a little high.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    10. Re:Play nice! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I'm a Buddhist, not a very good Buddhist, but one regardless. I'm going to die. I'm okay with that. Someday? My atoms will be the material that makes up a star. That is my reincarnation.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    11. Re:Play nice! by JeffAtl · · Score: 1

      Your molecules were once in a star, but they most likely won't ever be part of a star again since the sun isn't massive enough for a supernova.

    12. Re:Play nice! by jrumney · · Score: 1

      it merely requires an additional gas giant or some other tweaking to explain the existence of the four inner rocky worlds, including earth.

      Or perhaps another passing star?

    13. Re:Play nice! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I'm gonna go with believing Brian Cox unless you've some sort of greater expertise?

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    14. Re:Play nice! by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      Yes, many possibilities.

      IMHO, the work done in 2005 is unlikely 100% accurate or 100% inaccurate.

      It did too well in some of the developmental models of the Solar System's formation to be completely discounted.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    15. Re:Play nice! by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      We are so close, simultaneously, to unilateral destruction and universal expansion... not out of the Great Filter yet!

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    16. Re:Play nice! by JeffAtl · · Score: 1

      I doubt that Brian Cox thinks our sun will go supernova. You should check your sources again.

    17. Re:Play nice! by JeffAtl · · Score: 1

      The earth won't be part of that nebula though.

    18. Re:Play nice! by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Indeed ;) I've seen that a lot of people hope we don't find life elsewhere in the solar system because of the great filter. If we find it, it implies that the filter is in our future and we're therefore fucked.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  9. Re:"Less than 1% chance" by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

    Because 1% chance means quite unlikely.

    Unless we literally get a time machine working, its unlikely that we'll be able to show EXACTLY what happened. All we can do is model it, and anything that has a very tiny chance of happening is generally thrown out unless all other potential avenues are exhausted. Otherwise, each time we say "yeah, that 1% course is possible, lets stick with that" - we're wrong 99% of the time.

    --
    "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  10. Re:Bollocks! The Asteroid Belt and Kuiper Belt is by khallow · · Score: 2

    Until you find the spindizzies that are pushing the gas giants around, you have the problem of not having a mechanism by which planets can move in the way you suggest and result in the nearly circular orbits of the gas giants today. Nor is there enough mass in the Asteroid Belt to account for your "gap" discussion (the current mass of the asteroid belt is less than a tenth that of Io (3*10^21 kg versus 8*10^22 kg), the smallest of the four major moons of Jupiter).

    Jupiter has 90% of all non-Sun mass in the Solar System. There is nothing in the Solar System capable of capturing Jupiter, unless there was already one or more Jupiter mass objects present which were flung out as Jupiter came it. And circularizing all the orbits of the gas giants, given such mass exchanges with other star systems, would require vast amounts of time or intelligent interference (like the spindizzy engine), neither which is evident.

    Gravity doesn't work this way. You need a mechanism that would explain this process.

  11. Re:"Less than 1% chance" by Ken+D · · Score: 2

    So... if you walk up to a one hundred sided die, and the face of the die shows 31. Your position is that means the die is lying because there's only a 1% chance of that happening? ... interesting.

  12. And the age of the sun is? by ChromaticDragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How does this affect or is affected by our estimates of the age of the Sun and Solar System?

    As far as I understand, the best guide we have of the age of the Solar System is rocks on Earth used to estimate the age of Earth.

    How much extra time would be required for this supposed possibility of the inner planets forming after the gas giants sweeping in and back out?

    What tests could be done with rocks from Callisto or Ganymede to constrain the age of the Solar System?

    1. Re:And the age of the sun is? by bughunter · · Score: 1

      This Planetary Society blog entry by their Senior Editor does a pretty good job of explaining how the chemistry of a primordial rock can tell you the conditions under which it condensed, and zircon U-Pb dating can give you a pretty good idea of the age. This gives astronomers a clear picture of what the primordial system was like.

      --
      I can see the fnords!
    2. Re:And the age of the sun is? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      How does this affect or is affected by our estimates of the age of the Sun and Solar System?

      Fair enough question.

      The answer is : not in the slightest.

      As far as I understand, the best guide we have of the age of the Solar System is rocks on Earth used to estimate the age of Earth.

      Your knowledge is incomplete - it is a LONG way from the state of the art in the 1960s, and since then we've acquired a lot more knowledge.

      Once radiometric dating had reached a reasonable degree of accuracy - a few percent, instead of the 10-20 % of the early 1950s (I've got a copy of one of Holmes' 1950s papers, signed by the man himself), they did start looking at meteorites, and as techniques got more accurate and used smaller samples, looking at grains WITHIN meteorites. They found, fairly rapidly, that age estimates were variable (well, the solar system is an active place), but maximal ages were older than maximal ages for terrestrial samples, with a lot of spread. Some of the spread was obviously due to corrosion problems (the most easily recognised meteorites are iron-containing, which are obviously very corrodable), but many meteorites have complex internal structures, and these seemed to have differing ages.

      In the late 1960s, they started to get lunar samples back from the Russian landers, thne the Apollo missions. These also showed ages comparable with or higher than the oldest (dientified) Earth samples.

      As techniques improved (and sample sizes decreased) through the 1970s, the ages slowly pushed back, but a new sample source came into play : Antarctic meteorites. These were important because they have lower identification biases than previous techniques, which strongly favoured the unusual textures and compositions of the "iron" and "stony-iron" meteorites that dominated earlier collections. And as sample sizes for dating continued to fall from grammes to milligrammes to microgrammes, it became easier to measure the ages of the structures within the different components of meteorites. Also, with samples taken from within single grains, more complex atomic clocks (including extinct clocks) could be sampled to get the relative dating of events within a single rock, while the whole-rock measurements gave an age for the rock as a whole.

      The consequence is that the state of the art (last time I looked - a few years ago now) is that the oldest known structures in meteorites are what are known as CAIs (Calcium-Aluminium-rich-Inclusions) which date to about 4600 Myr and were formed early in the disc stage of planet formation. A few million years later, the CAIs plus dust were collecting into kilometre scale bodies cemented with dust grains, which heated sufficiently to weld into the "stony" (and stony-iron and iron - much rarer) meteorites at around 4575 Myr. A few million years more and the inner "rocky planets are assembled and more or less complete.

      A decade ago, the various estimates for the Earth added up to convenient "4567" Myr grand average. that conveniently memorable number didn't last long, but it has reached the point that people are now trying to detect the signal of things like the Moon-forming event. No-one has precise measurements of that - if the data is present, it's hanging around in the noise in the measurements at the moment. But we're getting there.

      Our understanding of the age of the planets in the solar system are informed by measurements of rocks, not orbital models.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  13. exoplanet searches found nothing like our system by peter303 · · Score: 1

    Kepler found several dozen multiplanet systems. Most of these were planets as large as Neptune orbiting is less than two years. There is a bias toward fast and large planets in the current technology.

  14. Re:The One True Model by grub · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "The problem" started when people began to question His writings and opted to not circumcise their sons.

    Science is a great thing, but God trickles out knowledge to us bit by bit to help us grow as his children. Unfortunately some people think Science is the be-all-end-all and ignore Him. That is why we have earthquakes, AIDS, and terrorists.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  15. Re:The One True Model by grub · · Score: 1

    Injections go against the sanctity of the human body. I would sooner die of a disease than defile the temple He created in His image with a single injection.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  16. Re: "Less than 1% chance" by gmiller123456 · · Score: 1

    No, the dice can be directly observed, so this is not a good example. A more appropriate example would be you guessing that the dice was 31 without observing it. So it is reasonable to belive there's a high probability that you're wrong.

  17. Re:Bollocks! The Asteroid Belt and Kuiper Belt is by khallow · · Score: 1

    Sorry, you're right. I didn't look at the numbers right.

  18. 2005 Theory was not a nice model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The only reason that theory was forwarded was because, at the time, detection of large gas giant planets close to stars in other solar systems were the only good observation we had of planets around other solar systems. So since we could only detect large planets whose orbits created wobbles in remote stars the scientists at the time thought, "We this is pretty common so maybe all solar systems have gas giants orbiting close to their star at some point in their lifetimes." But as with most cosmology, the more data we get and the better observations we have the old theories based on limited data are junk.

  19. Cue David Caruso by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    "So it turns out that wasn't..." (Removes glasses) "... such a nice model afterall!"

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  20. Now I get it! by denzacar · · Score: 1

    Thanks.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  21. Complex Theory can it also... by ppalme · · Score: 1

    explain the axial tilts of the planets. Also not sure if they have taken the Schwadron retention theory into account and how these neely discovered interstellar boundaries could play a role in planet formation.

  22. Re:NIce to see by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

    models and hypotheses being tested by the scientific method. So why doesn't this skepticism and rigor extend to climate science?

    It does. The willfully-ignorant Conservatives just keep denying reality.

    Answer: the leftists are too heavily invested politically to allow the scientific method to proceed untainted.

    Hahaha, no...That's the wingnut "explanation." None of their bizarre claims regarding people outside their cult are true.
    Why is it that the fantasy-role-playing RWNJs keep pretending that it's the tricksy left that's anti-science, when we can all see that it's the Republican lunatics who chose superstition, and rejected science. It's not the left who keep coming out as bigots and blaming their superstitions for their failure as humans, making them doubly-stupid.

  23. Re:NIce to see by HiThere · · Score: 1

    To be fair, the left are also science deniers whenever it suits their political agenda. Start talking about inherent differences between populations of people and you'll soon find out. But they don't usually have a lot of money invested in their bias, so they're more flexible. (Slightly.)

    Most of humanity of every stripe is unwilling to change it's beliefs just because of evidence. It needs a strong political or religious (i.e. emotional) motivation. I have hypotheses as to why, but very little in the way of evidence.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  24. Re:Nonsense by HiThere · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, that model doesn't work. And at many distances from the sun ices are stable enough to create a core to build things around. Interestingly Jupiter's orbit is around the place where water ice becomes solid enough to form such a core. This might be taken as an argument that Jupiter formed in position, and never moved, which in turn would imply that the same was true for the other giant planets.

    Please note that this is not a complete model, but only an argument that would need to be countered in any model that required that the giant planets migrate. It does, however, seem to indicate that the small rocky planets, including Earth, probably DID migrate. If this is the reason that the asteroids are small fragments, then the larger rocky planets probably formed further out but in the shadow of one of the giants, so they didn't have a chance to grow, that the giants probably at one time had much larger families of moons, and that orbital interactions destabilized the orbits of some of them, sending some fraction of those flying into the inner solar system. Then SOMETHING has to have slowed them down to allow capture. This is going to be difficult to explain as Venus, e.g., has a nearly circular orbit. Possibly there was still a large disk of unconsolidated matter which acted as a resistive medium. The "late heavy bombardment" could have been the final clearing of the area.

    Please note: This is only the sketch of a hypothesis. This doesn't even rise to the level of hypothesis. But if we start with "A large disk of spinning sand and rock", then Earth won't end up with any water. Earth orbit is too hot even currently.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  25. TFS seriously misstates TFA by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
    TFS talks about the gas giants migrating into the inner solar system, then out again.

    This is incorrect. What marched through the inner solar system was a series of small-number resonances (1:2, 2:3, 2:5, etc) with the orbits of (proto-)Jupiter and (proto-)Saturn, as the planets moved by considerably smaller amounts.

    The migration of those resonant orbits disturbed the orbits of smaller bodies, which then interact (collide) with other bodies and amongst themselves, resulting in accretion or ejection.

    Both Jupiter and Saturn produce resonances, though the Jovian ones are much the stronger.

    Without the ejection of a fifth gas giant, I cannot see a way for Jupiter and Saturn to exchange positions. And I can't see a way to circularise their orbits after such an exchange.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"