Planet-Building a Mess, or Theories a Mess?
A news release from the Spitzer Space Telescope operated by JPL says, “Astronomers Discover Planet Building is Big Mess.” Data from the orbiting infrared observatory indicates that dust disks around stars appear to be dominated by collisions of large bodies. Surprisingly, the dust disks do not correlate with the stars’ ages. A study of 266 stars showed 71 with disks. Contrary to the belief that disks condense into planets over time, some young stars showed no disks, and some old stars showed massive ones. The disks appear to be subject to violent, swirling activity, if infrared signatures from these disks can be taken to indicate that collisions between large bodies are taking place now. “Prior to these new results, astronomers thought planets were formed under less chaotic circumstances.”
The project scientists are not worried, though, putting a positive spin on the “messy” findings: “Spitzer has opened a new door to the study of discs and planetary evolution,” said one, and another beamed, “These exciting new findings give us new insights into the process of planetary formation, a process that led to the birth of planet Earth and to life.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day highlighted this story on October 19, stating that scientists expected to find dust disks depleting over time, but found the opposite.
Anyone see a solar system or planet or organism forming in the data? The only thing Spitzer sees is heat from crashing bodies, not a process leading to planets and life. “When embryonic planets, the rocky cores of planets like Earth and Mars, crash together, they are believed to either merge into a bigger planet or splinter into pieces.” There is indirect evidence for the latter, but the former is merely a belief.
According to the most popular theory, rocky planets form somewhat like snowmen. They start out around young stars as tiny balls in a disc-shaped field of thick dust. Then, through sticky interactions with other dust grains, they gradually accumulate more mass. Eventually, mountain-sized bodies take shape, which further collide to make planets.”
Most people make snowmen by intelligent design. When they have snowball fights, nothing creative emerges out of the mess – only pain for the impactee. None of this evidence matched the evolutionary expectations: not the dates, not the timeline, not the formation of planets. All Spitzer sees is colliding projectiles – no snowmen, no planets, no life. Whaddya say we stick to the evidence, OK?