From: robertaw@drizzle.com
In article ,
scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) wrote:
> Paul S Person writes:
> >On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 23:50:42 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D=B4Oliveiro
> > wrote:
> >
> >>On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 17:10:17 -0500, William Hyde wrote:
> >>
> >>> Alas, the mass of the entire asteroid belt is not enough to
> >>> significantly increase the mass of Mars.
> >>
> >>I can remember some SF stories suggesting that the Asteroid Belt is
> >>the debris left over from a planet which was destroyed in an ancient
> >>war.
> >>
> >>Fredric Brown=92s =93Letter To A Phoenix=94 (still sticks in my mind =
> >from my
> >>earliest readings in SF):
> >>
> >> I hope that never again is rediscovered the weapon Thragan used
> >> against her colony on Skora, which was then the fifth planet until
> >> the Thragans blew it into asteroids.
> >>
> >>But yes, the actual mass of the asteroids is way too small to make up
> >>a significant planet.
> >>
> >>In fact, I have heard our Solar System described as consisting of =93the
> >>Sun, Jupiter, and assorted debris=94. The entire mass of the rest of all
> >>the bodies other than those first two put together doesn=92t even come
> >>to the mass of Jupiter.
>
> Hogan did postulate that the earth's moon was originally
> part of the soi disant fifth planet that occupied an orbit
> coincident with the asteroid belt prior to its destruction.
IIRC (it has been decades since I read those books), our Moon was the
moon of that fifth planet.
--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
‹-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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