Crystals II

Our Planetary System

Our Planetary System

Almost out of breath from the effort and her zest to complete her presentation, Eurydice stopped her description. She grabbed a glass of water and gulped it all down. Orpheus had already noticed Eurydice’s exhaustion and had made sure she would be offered that glass of water. While she was drinking her glass of water, she beckoned Orpheus to continue with the description of the cosmic journey. So, rested Orpheus took over the description while the scientists in the audience were restless and held their breath, fearing that the two young people would have a change of heart and stopped the description. So, Orpheus went on with the description, to the general delight and satisfaction of everyone involved.

‘Almost 13.5 billion years ago, a special spiroid galaxy had been created in the Universe, amongst many billions of similar galaxies. In a corner of that galaxy, at the edges of one of its spirals, stellar matter made up of hydrogen and matter from dead protostars started to condense. The titanic forces of the Universe, in seamless cooperation, still under the form of energy and gaseous mass, had been accumulating stellar matter in a particular discrete point, under the guidance of the Triarchy of Oceanus, Cronos and Hyperion, always with the help of Iapetus. They had paid special attention on that particular planetary system, since it had been selected as the final stage of their own completion and incarnation.

While they were working for the construction of that solar system, they condensed as much matter as needed so as to create a yellowish-red sun, of such a mass so that it would be in a position to provide the necessary energy for at least ten billion years and the necessary brightness level so as to protect life. They studied it, making sure well ahead that it would be much smaller than the giant suns, so as to avert a fast burnout of its nuclear material, something that would have precluded life in its planets. It therefore ought to have the optimum mass so as to facilitate the creation, the development and preservation of life on one of its planets. For the same reasons, the distances and the sizes of the planets were estimated and determined, so as to support the fourth planet on which life was to appear. But in the meantime, clashes with Uranus started, at which point the titans left their work incomplete and proceeded with a change of plans. Doing certain minor adjustments and changes, they shifted the planet of life to the third planet, since that had become the one that served their purposes now. And this planet was of course our beloved Earth.

When enough matter from galactic gases and stellar dust had accumulated around a particular gravity center, the titans prepared themselves in a ceremonial fashion to jump-start the ‘Star’, the heart of that planetary system. At the heart of the sun, Hyperion blew in life, igniting the central core of the solar system that started to pulsate from the first thermonuclear reaction. The heart of our sun started ticking, initiating five billion years ago a series of nuclear fusions that would transform hydrogen into helium. Engaging in a voluptuous exotic dance with his wife, Euryphaessa, Hyperion gave birth to the sun, the Moon and Io but also to certain planetoids. Thus, this humble star was born with such a size and mass so as to be able to control the eight planets, the five planetoids and many asteroids and warm them as much as necessary. It is estimated that for another five billion earth years, it will keep illuminating the planets orbiting around it, along their 180 satellites. The titanic powers endowed the third planet from the sun with all their heart and breathed life in it. It was the blue planet, ‘EARTH’.

When the thermonuclear reactions of the hydrogen turning into helium ceased, the temperature at the core started decreasing. As a result of that, pressure also decreased, reaching a point whereby the pressure exerted from the exterior layers that surrounded the helium gas of its core that the star consisted of now, could no longer be contained. Thus, a slow, gradual collapse of the external layers started towards its core. This also triggered an increase of pressure and temperature at the core, due to this gravitational collapse. When the temperature of the continuously contracting core of the star reached about 200*106 degrees Kelvin, then the helium gas existing in its core initiated another thermonuclear reaction, fusing helium (He), initially into beryllium (Be), followed by the fusion of helium and beryllium into carbon (C). That process of course presupposed that the temperature at the core would have well exceeded one hundred million degrees Kelvin. At the same time, the star got warm and expanded, since its gravitational collapse stopped due to the fact that the energy produced now at the core could overcome gravity, turning the star into a red giant that will absorb its nearest planets, in the case that it would have a planetary system. From that point onwards, the star would continue living, burning up helium and turning it to carbon, gradually passing into old age.

In its effort to continue living, our sun will turn into a red giant, absorbing its nearest planets, most likely the two first ones and probably the third as well. Perhaps it will just repel the third. Thus the sun would acquire the necessary conditions for a new series of nuclear reactions that would now turn helium into carbon, as we said above. When the remaining helium at the core finishes, it is easily surmised that only carbon will have remained at the core, and that star will have gone past the rest of the 10% of its remaining life. Since the remaining mass of our sun cannot be greater than 1.5 solar masses4, after all helium is used up as burning fuel, it will become a white dwarf, which in turn, after slowly but steadily cooling down in millions of years, it will eventually turn itself into a black dwarf, remaining nothing but a stellar corpse, moving aimlessly into the Universe. With a dead sun, the planetary system around it will also be cooling for the following years, remaining lifeless, waiting for an event, so that it, too, will become food for a new stellar system or end up in the event horizon of some Black Hole.

Our Planetary or Solar System consists of its central star, the sun, the eight planets and the five planetoids, the approximately 180 satellites but also all objects that are retained in orbit around the sun, due to its gravitational field. In general, our solar system could be partitioned in five areas: starting off from the sun, the first area includes the inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars that possess a stable crust surface like that of the Earth, mainly consisting of silicon, iron, etc., and for these reasons, they are called terrestrial or telluric planets. The second area is the area of the asteroids, right after the Martian orbit, that consist of small celestial bodies, amongst which, planetoid ‘Ceres’ resides. The third area includes the outer gigantic, gaseous planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The fourth area is the area lying outside our solar system that starts right after the Neptunian orbit. The Kuiper Belt5 is the area of Circumstellar Scattered Disc Objects (SDO) within which planetoid ‘Eris’ resides. Finally, the fifth area is the Oort Cloud where our solar system ends. Together, the last two areas comprise a unified wide expanse, making up the outermost area of our solar system.

So, the analytic structure of the solar system, in ranking order of the planets, planetoids and the asteroids is: the Sun6 in the center, at about 150 au7 from Earth, followed by Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, Ceres8, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, the Kuiper Belt, Pluto9, Haumea10, Makemake11, the Circumstellar Scattered Disc Objects (SDO), Eris12, Comets, Heliopause, Bow Shock and finally, the outermost system with the spherical Oort Cloud13. The rotation of the planets around their axis follows the pattern of the rotation of the sun around its axis, that is, counterclockwise. Proper planetary rotation is the rotation that follows the pattern of solar rotation. Inverse rotation occurs in Venus, Uranus and Pluto, which rotate in a direction opposite to that of the sun. Rotations follow almost circular orbits, except in certain exceptions in whose cases, their planes almost coincide. Using as a reference plane the plane of the orbit of the Earth, which is called the elliptical, we observe that the deviation of the orbital planes of the other planets is smaller than 10 degrees.

All these were either created or began their creation five billion years ago from a gigantic molecular cloud of our galaxy, which had been separated and positioned at a particular distinct point that today harbors our solar system, comprising a complete, unified system. The objects with the greater mass orbiting around the sun are the eight planets, including the smaller Pluto, which recently was demoted from a planet to a planetoid. The other objects are the planetoids, the Kuiper Belt, the Oort Cloud and the various celestial bodies occasionally entering our solar system. The orbits of every object are almost elliptical and almost coincident with the plane determined by the elliptical of the Earth, at a width of less than 10 degrees.

At the central point of that gigantic molecular cloud, the Sun was originally created. From the moment the sun was energized, the molecular cloud, that is, the galactic matter that had accumulated around it, continued with its swirling motion and, aided by the uniform pressure exerted by the sun rays, gradually, distinct points of matter accumulation started to form where matter began to condense, following distinct orbits around the sun. The first condensation of stellar dust occurred at a distance of 70 million kilometers (0.31 A.U.)14 from the sun and created the first planet, so-called Mercury 15. It is the smallest planet in the planetary system after Pluto. It is even smaller than Saturn’s satellite, Titan. The second planet to be created from the accumulated matter would be Venus16, the so-called Evenstar in the afternoon and Morning Star in the morning, at a distance of 108 million kilometers ((0.73 A.U.) from the sun. The third planet to be created was our beautiful Earth17, at a distance of 150 million kilometers (1 A.U.) from the sun, with its accumulation of matter given particular attention by the titanic forces to achieve the creation of the blue planet, accosted by its satellite, the Moon, the fifth largest satellite in our solar system. In this planet the titanic forces will breathe in life using material from the stellar corpses of the past that were moving freely in the Universe. The fourth in the row planet to be created would be Mars18, at a distance of 228 million kilometers (1.67 A.U.) from the sun, also called ‘the Red Planet’, due to its color which is the effect of iron trioxide, accosted by its two satellites, Phobos and Deimos. The first four planets are called Inner or Terrestrial planets and possess stable crusts sharing a number of common elements.

The four planets to follow are the Gigantic planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune that together with their satellites create a defensive belt for human civilization, attracting, due to their gravitational fields, most of the stellar objects that appeared on their side. So, the fifth in a row planet, and the greatest of our solar system is Jupiter19, at a distance of 765 million kilometers (5.1 A.U.) from the sun, accosted by its 67 satellites, the largest of which include Ganymede, Europa, Calisto and Io. It is the gigantic planet that could have become a star if its mass exceeded 1/10 of solar mass. The sixth in order planet to be created was Saturn20, at a distance of 1.53 billion kilometers (9.53 A.U.) from the sun, accosted by its 62 satellites, the largest of which is Titan, which is the second largest satellite in the whole solar system, even larger than planet Mercury. The seventh planet to be created was Uranus21, at a distance of 2.87 billion kilometers (19.1 A.U.) from the sun, accosted by 27 satellites, the largest of which is Titania. The eighth planet and the fourth in size after Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus is Neptune22, at a distance 4.5 billion kilometers (30 A.U.) from the sun, accosted by its 13 satellites, the largest of which is Triton”23