The Recent Organization  of the Solar System by Patten & Windsor  ©1995 CHAPTER 5 Go to Main:  Patten Index

The Acquisition of Satellites and Craters

The Acquisition of Satellites

The Earth today has one satellite. In the former age and in a remote environment, evidently it had two, one being the Moon and the other being Mars. Jupiter has four satellites plus a coal-black ring system. Typically Jove's satellites are badly cratered.

Saturn has nine major satellites plus an icy ring system. Saturn's satellites also are badly battered, banged up bodies of various sizes. The icy rings of Saturn are evidence one icy satellite got too close to Saturn. It penetrated Saturn's Roche Limit and the ice ball fragmented. Subsequently the ice fragments drifted toward the plane of Saturn's equatorial bulge, where today they display their icy fragments in a magnificent, icy ring system.

Uranus has five satellites, each bearing scars of ancient, massive catastrophes. In addition, like Jupiter and Neptune, it has a dark, nearly coal black ring system which is similar to Saturn's rings except for color. The dark ring of Uranus is evidence of a former sixth satellite, one which penetrated the Uranian Roche Limit and fragmented.

It is offered that Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus each acquired its system of satellites in much the same manner as did the much smaller Earth. Further, those badly battered satellites are liberally pocked with craters. They must have encountered debris in remote space as did Mercury and the Moon.

The Acquisition of Countless Crustal Craters

We offer that these giant planets captured their satellites as they wandered across the cosmos, 1,000 to 2,000 a.u. from the Sun, anderhaps in regions even more remote. At 2,000 a.u., it is eleven or twelve "light days" from the Sun. In this region, as satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune, they continued to intercept interstellar debris. The countless craters on the satellites are their scars of distant conflict.

The Physical Geography of Jupiter's Satellites

Io, the innermost, is slightly larger than our Moon. It is not as heavily cratered as is the Moon. However, many of its craters may have been masked by immense electrical discharges and consequent vaporization of surface materials. There is an electrical flux tube between Io and Jupiter, ongoing, carrying immense voltages across the vacuum of nearby space. This flux tube and its cause is discussed in Volume 2, in a chapter entitled "The Electric Show." Io is well-cratered.

Europa, the next innermost, is somewhat smaller than the Moon, and has about 67% of the mass of the Moon. It has a paucity of craters; however it has an abundance of surface ice that may have masked ancient craters. In general Europa has demonstrably few craters.

Ganymede is the largest satellite in the Solar System, and is twice as massive as the Moon. Ganymede is speckled heavily with numerous craters. It seems that these craters were acquired one by one, and not in a barrage.

Callisto is almost twice as massive as the Moon, and is over one million miles from Jupiter. If Ganymede is heavily cratered, Callisto is so badly cratered that craters make up about a third of all of its surface. Callisto has encountered tens of thousands of interstellar debris.

Some offer that asteroids from the asteroid belt created the craters, but Callisto's craters are both more numerous and decidedly distant from the asteroid belt. Callisto encountered debris hits elsewhere, where debris exists but cannot be seen by our telescopes. Callisto did not acquire its dense spread of craters in the inner solar system. Nor did Ganymede, Europa or Io. There aren't enough asteroids to make a small portion of Callisto's craters, nor do very many of the asteroids intercept Jupiter's orbit.

Thousands upon uncounted thousands of craters indicates a lot of miscellaneous debris exists in deep space where Callisto once roamed. Mercury's surface reads the same story. Our Moon's surface reads the same, as does the surface of Ganymede.

Saturn's Satellite Surfaces

Mimas is Saturn's innermost satellite, and is some 240 miles in diameter. Its surface is ice, and despite that, its surface is freckled thickly with small craters.

Enceladus is some 150,000 miles from the center of Saturn. Its diameter is 315 miles. Its surface has been badly battered.

Tethys is 650 miles in diameter. Tethys has numerous craters. One has a diameter 40% of the diameter of Tethys itself. It is surprising that Tethys could absorb such a blow without shattering.

Dione, the fourth innermost satellite of Saturn, is a little larger than Tethys. Its diameter is 650 miles. Numerous craters are sprinkled across the surface of Dione.

Rhea, the fifth, is larger yet, with a diameter of 950 miles. It is some 325,000 miles from the center of Saturn. Rhea has uncounted thousands upon thousands of craters.

Titan, the sixth moon of Saturn, is the second largest in the solar system. It is 65% more massive than the Moon. We have no information on the crater count of this giant.

Hyperion, the seventh moon of Saturn, is odd-shaped, not spherical. Its diameters are 250 miles on one side and 150 miles on another. It, too, is a badly battered bonanza of catastrophism.

Iapetus, the next to outermost, is 900 miles in diameter. It is over 2,200,000 miles distant from Saturn. Once again, Iapetus is thickly and uniformly sprinkled with thousands of craters.

Satellites of Uranus

Uranus has five small satellites, named Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. Some very violent physical geography is found among these satellites, astounding astronomers. Interpretations are yet to be established.

As all realize, the Moon is badly pocked on both sides with craters. Craters on Mercury are even denser and bigger. A dozen satellites of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus are known to be badly battered and heavily sprinkled with craters. We find evidence indicating that all of these planets and their satellite systems formerly were in deep space, beyond 900 a.u. There must be blizzards of bad luck battering blast-creating ballistics in the region from where these planets and their satellites have come.

With the overabundance of craters on these bodies, we come to a further conclusion. Deep, frigid, remote space cannot be empty. Its debris may be revolving at much slower velocities, one or two thousand mph instead of 66,000 or 107,000 mph (like Earth and Mercury.) Yet, those velocities are sufficient to create major impacts, and badly scar the surfaces of many of them. The worst ever case of measles is better than the faces some of these satellites display.

When examined closely, on the one hand, the gradualistic advocates who have a difficulty persuading astute observers that the Moon's numerous craters were all results of local asteroid impacts over the last 4.6 billion years, ... or however much time they choose. The asteroids are too few, too small and too distant in our region of space.

On the other hand, the leading advocates of ex nihilo creation ignore crater densities altogether. They argue that these planets and satellites were suddenly created in place with instant sculpted craters. Who is kidding whom?

Then, one can review the cratered chaos on Mercury. When one realizes that asteroids in Mercury's region have been counted at just one (Icarus.) asteroids cannot be the answer. The realm beyond 1,000 a.u., apparently, is more densely-populated with debris than the inner regions. The realm beyond 1,000 a.u. is a more appealing answer.

Story 5 - Region of Acquisition of Satellites and Craters

For the acquisition of satellites by the Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, the evidence favors a capture environment, 900 a.u. or beyond. Along with the acquisition of spin rates in that realm, there was acquisition of satellite systems and craters on the satellites. The conclusion is that deep space is densely populated with debris, which means there have been numerous fragmentationís there. This makes sense considering the slower velocities that prevail. The evidence pointing in that direction forms the fifth story of our skyscraper of catastrophism.

Conclusion

As to the acquisition of craters for the satellites of the Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, and like Mercury, those satellites apparently revolved at lower velocities in a realm where miscellaneous debris is thick, and is often encountered.

Some bodies were captured; four or five by Jupiter. Nine or ten by Saturn. Five or six by Uranus. Some are twice the mass of our Moon. Ganymede and Titan for instance. Some are a hundredth of the mass of our Moon. Mimas and Umbriel for instance.

The fifth story of our cosmology of planetary catastrophism concerns acquisition of craters by satellites, and acquisition of satellites by planets, in a remote, frigid realm some 1,000 a.u. or farther from the Sun.

The inner solar system, within the orbit of Neptune, has several thousand asteroids, 90 or so icy comets and perhaps two dozen meteor streams. But inner space is evidently a region thinly populated with wandering debris compared to regions out farther.

An appeal to a mythical billions upon billions of years for the formation of planet satellites in their present places, is an excuse wearing thinner and thinner, and as we shall soon see, paper thin.

PREVIEW. Chapter 6 may be the most important chapter of this book, and also of the quartet in this series. Evidence is collected and displayed regarding The Delivery System, i.e., the United Parcel of the Cosmos. How did the Earth get here? And when? And Venus, Mercury and Mars?

Will it return? What is its period? Some of these questions we can answer, and some we can't. Read on.