Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-12-31
By Thomos R. Henry
Science Editor of The Stuf

SeteueO Gottof OF sue Ssot
BOSTON, Dec. 31.-Earth and
all the solar system were born in
bitter cold and darkness--about
4 billion years ago before the
sun started shining.
They arose from a titanic gas
cloud which filled about the pres
ent orbit of Pluto. This cloud
contained all the elements. It's
particles condensed into bodies
of all sizes-the great sun, the
planets and the countless billions
of asteroids and meteors. The
latter were compared to iron and
stone raindrops formed in the
primeval cloud.
This was one of the views
presented before the American
Association for the Advance
ment of Science here yesterday
by DR.. Gerard Kuiper Of the
University Of Chicago.
It was at least 100 million
years before the sun reached
something like its present heat.
DR.. Kuiper said.
Meteors Discussed.
The session was devoted pri-
marily to the nature and origin
of the meteors, or shooting stars.
thousands of which hit the
earth's outer atmosphere every
second The prevalent theory
has been that these are debris,
together with the thousands of
minor planets or one or two
major planets which perhaps
were roughly the size Of the
earth and which blew up be-
tween 4 million and 700 million
years ago. In the light of
present knowledge. however. the
cosmic raindrop picture of their
origin as separate particles APP
pears more accurate.
According to this thesis. as
described by DIR. Kuiper. the
center of the great cloud con-
densed in small masses to form
the sun and planets. The enor-
nous gravity of the sun resulted
in it becoming heated.
The planets were formed in
much the same way at about the
same time and, developing con-
siderable masses. drew in other
particles. But in the vast tract
of space between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter the particles
condensed together in small
aggregations which had no APP
preciable gravity. were not at
tracted to each other. and hence
remained separate particles.
Being in the suns gravitational
field, they started to revolve in
orbits around the newborn star.
100 Million Years Accommodating.
The large planets could have
formed by accumulation of cold
particles in about 100 million
years, DR.. Kuiper said. The
small asteroids may have formed
in somewhat shorter time. A
contradictory theory long gen.
orally accepted was that the
planets were masses of fiery gas
in some way torn loose from an
already hot sun, which gradu-
ally cooled in space to their
present forms.
Proponents Of the planetary
explosion theory of meteorites
presented much data in it's sup
port. A report on age determine
tons of meteorites found intact
on the earth's surface, based on
the peculiar isotope of lead
formed by the radioactivity of
uranium and thoriurn, was pre-
pared by DR.. F. Paneth of the
University of Durham. England.
It revealed that these shoot
ing stars" seem to fall in two age
groups-a few million years and
at least 200 million years. This
would indicate that they were
parts of two celestial bodies,
cooled from a molten state at
different times. both probably
between orbits of Mars and Jupi-
ter and both broken up in some
cosmic smash.
1t was stressed. however, that
age determinations are highly
unreliable because of the ex-
tremely small amounts Of ele-
mentS which must be analysed,
the known production of an
isotope of helium by cosmic ray
bombardment and the possibility
that the meteorites may have
several times come near enough
to the sun to be remelted.
Irregular Orbits.
These shooting stars move in
extremely irregular orbits, the
reports showed. When these or
bits pass far enough inside the
earth's orbit they are captured
in the earth's field of gravity
and fall as iron or stone rain.
Very few ever reach the earth's
surface. The vast majority are
burned to fine ash by the fric-
ton of the upper atmosphere.
The immense numbers of them
above the atmosphere constitute
one of the major hurdles of flu
ture space travel.
Although the orbits are highly
irregular, however, they are ap-
proximately the same as those
of the minor planets, Eros and
Adonis, which unqueStionably
are satllites Of the sun like the
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