HackingTheUniverse

The Titius Bode law or hypothesis is a theory that planetary orbits in the Solar System are spaced in a proportional progression such that each successive orbit is roughly twice the distance from the Sun as the orbit just inside it.

Titius-Bode Law – [milanovic.org]

The Titius-Bode Law or Rule is the observation that orbits of planets in the solar system follow a simple arithmetic rule quite closely. It was discovered in 1766 by Johann Daniel Titius and “published” (without attribution) in 1772 by Johann Elert Bode, thus the name.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM – [ucla.edu]

WHY IS THERE SUCH A LARGE GAP BETWEEN THE ORBITS OF MARS AND JUPITER?

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The large gap between Mars and Jupiter is associated with the large mass of Jupiter but there has been an evolution in our understanding of the nature of this effect. Isaac Newton, for example, regarded this gap as part of the divine plan for the stable and clockwork universe: the massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, had been located by Providence at the outside of the planetary system, well clear of the smaller planets whose orbits their gravitational force would otherwise disrupt. Later, Johann Heinrich Lambert, who in general is as committed to an eternal, unchanging clockwork universe as was Newton, proposed that change had been brought about by the attractive power of Jupiter: “And who knows whether already planets are missing which have departed from the vast space between Mars and Jupiter? Does it then hold of celestial bodies as well as of the Earth, that the stronger chafe the weaker, and are Jupiter and Saturn destined to plunder forever?” This view is much closer to our modern view that the formation of Jupiter brought an end to the formation of planetary bodies in the gap between Mars and Jupiter and then caused the small bodies that had already formed in this region to collide with one another, leading to destruction of many of these bodies.

Asteroid belt – [springnote.com]

On January 1, 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi, Chair of Astronomy at the University of Palermo, Sicily, found a tiny moving object in the exact location predicted by the Titius-Bode Law. He dubbed it Ceres, after the Roman goddess of the harvest and patron of Sicily. Piazzi initially believed it a comet, but its lack of a coma suggested it was a planet. Fifteen months later, Olbers discovered a second object in the same region, Pallas. Unlike the other known planets, the objects remained points of light even under the highest telescope magnifications, rather than resolving into discs. Apart from their rapid movement, they were indistinguishable from stars. Accordingly, in 1802 William Herschel suggested they be placed into a separate category, named asteroids, after the Greek asteroeides, meaning “star-like”.