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
Extraterrestrial atmosphere Extraterrestrial atmosphere The study of extraterrestrial atmospheres is an active field of research, both as an aspect of astronomy and to gain insight into Earth's atmosphere. In addition to Earth, many of the other astronomical objects in the Solar System have atmospheres. These include all the gas giants, as well as Mars, Venus, and Pluto. Several moons and other bodies also have atmospheres, as do comets and the Sun. There is evidence that extrasolar planets can have an atmosphere. Comparisons of these atmospheres to one another and to Earth's atmosphere broaden our basic understanding of atmospheric processes such as the