The Ghost In The Machine wrote in message ...
In sci.physics, James Harris


deleted

Oh wow that came out weird. It's supposed to be that there's this one
physicist who is well-known for talking about exploding planets.

And amazingly enough the evidence supports his theory.

Apparently, planets sometimes just explode.

Hm. Considering that we're still here how much credence can we put
into that theory?

[rest snipped]

The timing of the theorized explosion for the planet that Mars orbited
around coincides (if I'm to believe what I've read) with a mass
extinction on earth, as the explanation would be that a tremendous
amount of debris rained down with a lot of energy upon the earth, and
wiped out a lot of life.

Um...if Mars was orbiting a planet orbiting the Sun, and that planet
exploded, wouldn't Mars be thrown into a more elliptical orbit?
Also, where would the fragments go?

Why?

According to that guy I mentioned it basically disintegrated, though a
lot coated Mars, which the evidence supports, and some of it descended
upon the earth, and created a mass extinction roughly 3 million years
ago.

Also, the Mars-sized chunk is theorized to hit us well before
biogenesis; the planet was still molten. (One of the results
was our Moon.)

Nope. I think you're talking of another theorized collision from way
before what this guy is theorizing.

My suggestion is to look at some of the recent data from Mars
missions, as apparently there's a thick layer on one side of Mars that
supports the theory.

My understanding--which I say because I haven't checked thoroughly--is
that there's a LOT of evidence to support this theory.

So it seems that there's quite a bit of evidence that planets can just
explode.

Oh yeah, lest I forget, I'll remind that I've put forward the Pluto
observations as possible further evidence, and yes, I'm kind of
playing Devil's Advocate here because I think the theory is
interesting, and not because I'm certain it's proven by the data.

Notice that physics people can discuss intriguing theories without it
disintegrating into a shouting match and insults.


James Harris