In the 18th century, the science of our civilization was going through a turbulent period. The course of natural science, which was born quite recently, later called rationalism, opened new horizons for mankind. Most of the laws of classical physics and the foundations of modern chemistry were discovered and laid down at that time. And it was at this time that humanity first tried to look a little further than to the other end of the globe, where it usually looked to buy spices or parrots for the royal zoos …
The beginning of space exploration of the solar system also began in the 18th century. It was during this period that the planet Uranus was discovered and many theoretical calculations about the structure of the solar system, made 1-2 centuries ago by such "whales" of astronomy as Kepler, Newton and Huygens, were practically confirmed.
So, for example, in particular, most of the planets, according to the rule predicted by Kepler, had to obey the law of geometric progression. This was later confirmed by the astronomers Titius and Bode. So, these two scientists noticed a unique phenomenon - all the planets (including the discovered Uranus) fully fit into the picture of progression predicted by Kepler and confirmed by them. However, for some reason it lacked one component, namely the 5th. In total, 7 planets were discovered and all the planets, from Mercury to Uranus, were supposed to make up 7 members of the progression, however, for some reason, instead of 5th place, for some reason Jupiter ended up in 6th place, Saturn in seventh and so on. In general, it turned out that there is another unknown planet and, according to the Titius-Bode rule, it should have been located exactly between Mars and Jupiter.
Needless to say, astronomers all over the world urgently began to search for this planet, however, no one could find it. About a dozen years have passed and the bold idea was safely forgotten, since astronomy had already begun to go out of fashion: it was replaced by a new popular scientific trend - electricity.
But, some were not going to give up. Italian Giuseppe Piazzi suggested that such a planet may have really existed, however, for unknown reasons, it disappeared. For example, it flew away from the solar system. Or collapsed. The latter suggested that fragments of the planet should have remained in place.
Piazzi made it his goal to find these wrecks, at least the largest of them. To do this, he gathered a group of about three dozen enthusiasts, with whom he began to carefully explore the sky in the ecliptic. It was Piazzi who discovered the first large fragment of an unknown planet - the asteroid Ceres. Over the next five years, about a dozen "minor planets" were discovered, revolving around the Sun in orbit, where the same unknown 5th planet should be located …
Thus, not only the fact of its existence was proved, but also its fate. The mysterious planet was destroyed as a result of some kind of cosmic cataclysm. Her name was immediately invented - Phaeton.
This name was not accidental. According to legend, the son of the sun god Helios, Phaethon, took his father's chariot without asking (representing the Sun itself) and galloped across the sky. But, since he did not have sufficient experience, he came too close to the Earth and fires and other disasters began on it. People prayed to Zeus (Jupiter) and he killed Phaethon with lightning.
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The legend perfectly suited the possible version of the real development of events, since the planet Phaethon could be destroyed by the interaction of the gravitational fields of the Sun and Jupiter. According to modern estimates of scientists, this could have happened about 10 million years ago.
Well, that's all. Another solved mystery of nature, another plus in the treasury of science … But, was it really so? First, the dating of such an event, to put it mildly, is far-fetched. No substantial evidence that Phaethon was destroyed exactly 10 million years ago has not yet been presented. And, secondly, according to any models of motion and interaction of bodies under the influence of gravity, Phaethon, or rather its debris, simply could not remain in that orbit - sooner or later they would be attracted to Jupiter. The approximate period of complete "cleansing" of Phaethon's orbit by Jupiter would be 1-2 million years.
And, meanwhile, the total mass of the Asteroid Belt roughly corresponds to the mass of the planet Phaethon, according to Kepler's rule. That is, so far nothing has gone anywhere. This gives every reason to believe that the catastrophe occurred relatively recently.
In addition, it is strange that practically all the debris adhere to practically the same orbits. And the number of "wandering" asteroids is relatively small. Well, of course, there are many, several thousand, but what is a few thousand compared to millions?
One gets the impression that the planet Phaethon was not at all torn apart by gravitational interactions, but simply "slowly" crumbled and continued its journey in a slightly altered form. Undoubtedly, some part of it flew into the surrounding space, but a large amount of the substance that made it up is still there.
An interesting fact related to many asteroids is that traces of water and organic compounds were recently discovered on them. These, of course, are not proteins or some other complex molecules, but just methane and other hydrocarbons, but the very fact of this already makes one think that life could well exist on Phaeton.
In addition, you can roughly determine when the event occurred. In the history of the Earth, there have been more than once cataclysms associated with the fall of meteorites, which radically changed not only the climate, but also the appearance of our planet. "Meteorite" origin has at least three periods of cooling, caused by dusting of the atmosphere, which occurred as a result of the fall of large meteorites. The first happened 65 million years ago, as a result of which the dinosaurs became extinct. The second was a little earlier - about 33 ml years ago. It could have been caused by the so-called "Mexican meteorite".
But the last, the third, happened quite recently, no more than 25 thousand years ago. Moreover, some scientists are inclined to believe that it continues to this day. This extinction is a consequence of the last ice age, which happened around the same time.
In Liang Bua Cave in Indonesia, unique drawings have been found depicting the flight of a giant comet, and the ensuing rain of stars. The dates of the drawings date back to about 25-27 millennia BC. It is possible that our ancient ancestors, as best they could, recorded the beginning of the apocalypse - the fall of many relatively small meteorites that were not capable of causing significant damage to the flora and fauna of our planet, however, which managed to cause a tremendous dusting of the atmosphere, which caused a strong cooling. The consequences of this cooling resulted in a whole ice age, at the end of which we live.
There is other evidence that Phaeton could explode in front of our distant ancestors. In some regions of the Sahara, many fragments of meteorites have been found that do not have any exact places of impact in the form of large craters. One gets the impression that the stones were literally “falling from the sky”. Radiocarbon analysis carried out with them suggests that the oxidation of the carbon contained in them took place at about the same time, about 25 thousand years ago.
The solution to the death of Phaethon can be solved in the coming years. And the first steps have already been taken. In 2010, the first spacecraft landed on the surface of an asteroid.