EVIDENCE OF THE EXPLOSION OF A PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM A FEW MILLIONS YEARS AGO

Examination of well-determined orbits of 'new' comets shows that these apparently had a common origin in the present location of the asteroid belt about 3.2 million years ago. That would indicate the explosive breakup of a larger parent body. Tests of that hypothesis versus an 'Oort cloud' origin strongly favour the former. Additional supporting evidence includes 'explosion signatures' in asteroid orbital elements, indicating that asteroids had a similar origin; meteorites with anomalously young cosmic ray exposure ages, also showing evidence of shock and rapid heating to the point of partial melting; dark, carbonaceous material deposited on surfaces all over the solar system in a pattern consistent with a single blast wave spreading through the system; and companions or satellites of both asteroids and comets, suggested by recent findings to be abundant, that are difficult to explain other than by means of an explosion. One such exploded parent body was apparently in the immediate vicinity of Mars when it blew up, suggesting that Mars was originally its moon. Evidence for this includes an inner asteroid belt of predominantly S-type ('silicaceous') asteroids; a massive hemispheric crustal dichotomy on Mars; evidence of a major, sudden geographic pole shift; loss of a former thick atmosphere; and excess Xe-129, a massive explosion by-product. The totality of astronomical evidence, when combined with geological evidence, suggests that planetary explosions are a significant under-appreciated factor that helped shape solar system history.