History of Solar System formation and evolution hypotheses (we've known, of course, since 1965, that it doesn't), very slow, accelerated, and finally, daily rotation. He explained the differences between inner and outer planets and inner and outer moons through vortex behaviour. Mercury's eccentric orbit was explained by its recent expulsion from the Sun and Venus' slow rotation as its being in the "slow rotation phase", having been expelled second to last. The Tom Van Flandern model was first proposed in 1993 in the first edition of his book. In the revised version from 1999 and later, the original Solar System had 6 pairs of twin planets each fissioned
Formation and evolution of the Solar System further hypothesized that the Mars-sized object may have formed at one of the stable Earth–Sun Lagrangian points (either or ) and drifted from its position. The moons of trans-Neptunian objects Pluto (Charon) and Orcus (Vanth) may also have formed by means of a large collision: the Pluto–Charon, Orcus–Vanth and Earth–Moon systems are unusual in the Solar System in that the satellite's mass is at least 1% that of the larger body. Astronomers estimate that the Solar System as we know it will not change drastically until the Sun has fused almost all the hydrogen fuel in its core into helium,