catastrophic theories

CATASTROPHIC THEORIES

Planetesimal Hypothesis :  Mr. Chamberlin along with an astronomer Moulton postulated this theory in 1905.  According to Chamberlin, our sun is a proto-star which was formed of solid particles and was cold and circular in shape.  There was another star, termed as intruding star which was destined to pass very close to the proto-sun.  when the intruding star came very close to the proto-sun infinite number of small particles were detached from the outer surface of the proto-sun due to the massive gravitational pull exerted by the giant intruding star.  Chamberlin called these detached small particles as planetesimals.  Initially, the detached particles were just like dust particles.  These particles are not of uniform size, the large particles attracted the smaller planetesimals thus numerous particles were added to the larger planetesimal called nuclei, around this nuclei remaining dust particles started accumulated to form other remaining planets.  With the passage of time, the remaining proto-sun changed into present day sun.  The satellites of the planets were created due to the repetition of the same processes and mechanism.

Tidal Hypothesis : Sir James Jeans, a British scientist propounded this theory in 1919 along with other scientist by name Harold Jeffery.  According to them initially the sun is a giant incandescent gaseous mass of matter, besides the sun, there was another star termed as intruding star.  There was a great impact of the tidal force of the intruding star on the surface of the primitive sun.  The intruding star was continuously moving along such a path that it was coming nearer to the primitive sun, its gravitational force went on increasing and became maximum, with the result a giant Cigar shaped tide of matter ejected from the primitive sun, thousands of kilometers in length was created.  This ejected cigar shaped matter Jeans called this as filament, which was thicker in the centre and thinner and sharper at the ends.  This shape is because, when the intruding star was at distant place, it could exert less pull and when it comes near to the primitive sun the force of attraction increased to maximum.  Therefore the shape of matter ejected is in the shape of a cigar.  The formed cigar or the filament later on cooled to get contract and broke into smaller pieces and each piece condensed to form one planet.

 Binary star Hypothesis: This theory is based on the dualistic concept in 1937 postulated by Mr. Russell.  According to him there were two stars neat the primitive sun, in the beginning the companion star was revolving around the primitive sun.  Later on one giant star, the third star approached the companion star but the direction of revolution of the approaching star was opposite to that of the companion star.  Thus, large amount of the matter from the companion star was attracted towards the giant approaching star because of the gravitational pull.  This ejected matter started revolving in the direction of the giant approaching star and thus opposite to the direction of the revolution of companion star.  Later on planets were formed from the ejected matter.  In the beginning the planets might have been nearer to each other and thus matter might have ejected out from these planets due to the mutual attraction and thus satellites might have been formed from the matter.

Super Novae Hypothesis: Propounded by Mr. Hoyle in 1946, this theory is based on the principles of Nuclear physics.  According to Hoyle initially there were two stars one primitive star and the two companion star.  This companion star later on became supernova due to the nuclear reaction.  It may be pointed out that every star will be emitting the energy in the form of light, heat, etc., is generated by the process known as Nuclear fusion, where in atoms of lighter elements combine under intense heat and pressure to form atoms of heavier elements, releasing a vast amount of energy.  The stars generally contain Hydrogen this slowly combine with each other to form Helium which is a heavier atom than hydrogen.  In this process vast amount of energy is also released. This same reaction was also going on in Hoyle’s primitive sun and companion sun but the rate of nuclear fusion was many times greater in the companion star. With the passage of time all the hydrogen of the companion star was consumed and got collapsed by exploding violently this Hoyle called as Supernova.  This explosion resulted in spread of enormous gaseous matter and mass of dust which started revolving around the primitive sun.  Thus the matter and dust became building material for the formation of future planets.