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Reflector Book Review:
Dark Matter, Missing Planets
and
New Comets
Category: Science of Astronomy
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Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets
Tom Van Flandern
North Atlantic Books, $18.95,
428 pp, soft cover
This has been a very difficult review
to write. There is a lot about the book Dark Matter,
Missing Planets and New Comets that I like, yet
so much of it presents theories and perspectives which
are very different from the main stream.
Van Flandern earned his Ph.D. in celestial
mechanics from Yale University, directed the Celestial
Mechanics Branch of the Nautical Almanac Office of the
U.S. Naval Observatory and has been a consultant to
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These are excellent qualifications
by any standard. Yet, Van Flandern seems to be virtually
alone with many of his theories and ideas.
Central to these ideas is what he
considers strong evidence that the origin of the asteroid
belt was indeed a planetary break-up event. This theory
is not new in and of itself. This hypothesis was brought
forward in the last century not long after the discovery
of the first minor planets. It was discarded, however,
in recent years as evidence accumulated favoring the
accretion theory. Current thinking is that the asteroids
are the remains of material that was not swept up by
the larger bodies during the planetary formation period.
Van Flandern points out solar system
phenomena that he feels is best explained by a planetary
break-up. Among these, are a better explanation of the
origin of comets than the hypothetical Ort Cloud, the
origin of tektites, the hemispheric asymmetry of cratering
on many planetary and satellite surfaces, the origin
of magnetism in lunar rocks, the brief but violent water
flows on Mars, the rings and close asteroidal moons
of the outer planets, the extremely black coatings on
single hemispheres such as Iapetus, and the fact that
some of Neptune's asteroid- like moons are inside the
planet's Roche limit.
I found these ideas and arguments
intriguing and well thought out. The only problem I
have is that there is no known mechanism that would
cause a planetary break-up. This Van Flandern readily
admits, but he reminds us that our knowledge of planetary
cores is just too small to generalize about the processes
involved.
However Van Flandern covers more than
just solar-system phenomena in Dark Matter, Missing
Planets and New Comets. The following are samplings
of other chapter titles. "On the Nature of Space, Time
and Matter," "On Gravity," "On Relativity," "Stars,
Galaxies and the Universe," and "On the Composition
of Substance." All of these topics are presented with
a different slant than one is likely to have encountered
before. As he admits, "The approach here will differ
from the discussions of most other authors in one major
way: the reasoning will be forward/deductive, not backwards/inductive.
Instead of starting from the observed universe and figuring
how it could have come about, we will start with a single
unit of substance in an otherwise empty space and step
by step build a universe. I will call the resulting
model the Meta Model..." (p. 3).
Closely connected to this is what
I consider one of the most interesting chapters of the
book, the one titled "The Scientific Method." The goal
of the Scientific Method is "to arrive at theories which
explain and predict the phenomena of nature. It is a
set of rules which experience has shown to lead to theories
offering correct explanations and predictions more often
then when the rules are ignored. But paradoxically,
the rules of the Scientific Method are themselves a
theory, subject to verifications, change and improvement.
They sometimes fail us, leading us to develop false
theories that make incorrect predictions. As long at
that continues to happen, there will still be room for
improvement in the set of rules which constitute our
Scientific Method for understanding reality" (p. 348).
My favorite chapter in the book is
the sixth, "Orbits." I think most amateur astronomers
will find this quite informative. Van Flandern is really
in his element in this chapter, as one would expect
from an expert in celestial mechanics.
If you are ready to have your understanding
of reality challenged, Dark Matter, Missing Planets
and New Comets is the book for you. Like myself,
you may not agree with all of the conclusions offered,
but you will find your perspectives broadened by a different
way of viewing the universe. Isn't that the reason we
pursue astronomy in the first place?
Paul R. Castle
Book Service Chairman
Reviewed in the February 1994 issue.
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