planet : Astrus

The planets formed as twins, of quadruplets in resonance co-orbiting within the pre-solar dust and gas nebula ... and thence separated and reordered among themselves generally the heavier more inward ... individuating further in collisions with cometary debris flinging about the early solar system,- eventually clearing their orbit-spaces and settling-in with a few moons and shepherded asteroids.

Between Mars and Jupiter, in a Bode-Titius-ordered orbit for a planet twinned with Mars, is but a tiny fraction of a planetary mass distributed as a smattering of moonoids and debris uncommon for numerosity elsewhere within the solar system though quite probably abundant in the Kuiper Belt and beyond Pluton. It seems more likely that a planet originally began-forming at that Bode-Titius orbit-radius distance, but under the additional gravity-flinging influence of Jupiter, met its intended-constituent second-quarter twin half-mass (or third-quarter, the "missing" half-mass of Mars) at too vigorous an angle: a 'zero-energy' adjustment: their co-orbits became more elliptical, crossing each other rather than simply joining,- and splattered in one final blow.

(Other less-likely alternatives, though with considerable cosmic advisory, include maybe that Astrus was struck by a distant moon of Jupiter, or a cosmic rogue "planetbuster", and exploded.)

What is left there may be useful for space-mining and geoplanetary studies of the innermost core depths of planets: 'Frozen' mineral formations will directly inform planet-geologists of what may comprise the center of our Earth;-- The apparent paucity of uranium in iron asteroids arrived on Earth, suggests uranium is-not heating the core but may have been added later in the crustal development: an argument consistent with passing supernovae contributing the uranium as atomic dust late in the solar nebula and deposited nearer the planet surfaces ... or, uranium may not have remained with much abundance that far from our central sun, (Mercury might be loaded).

(Other discussion-arguments include the natural zone-refining of uranium from core nickel-iron, and slag-floatation of uranium-oxide.)

The smallish mass of planetary-relative Mars and cumulatively the main asteroids suggests the outer layer of to-be planet Astrus may have exploded-away in final pair coalescence, escaping even solar gravity:- All but its two iron cores were nuclear-fusionables, and if oceans had collected on the surface (*), the gravitational attraction drew tidalwaves in the final hours before compact (co-impact), to sit directly between ... The resulting strike compressed the water to stellar-core density and temperature, and the resulting hydrogen fusion in the shock-bound-'water' zone between much of the nearsides might have accelerated both pair-halves masses out of the solar system, And for a cosmic instant appeared as a tiny aster-esque 'nova' shedding away most everything but the heaviest....

* (The 'common' assumption is, that, like Mars, its planet mass was too small to retain water vapor;- But early in formation the water was molecularly heavier sludge-water, and in much greater abundance in co-orbit, and more still in the process of outgassing from the planet mass-depth.)

This precludes simple moonoid collisions, and may lead to reconsideration of what planet Astrus, was, and what it may have been for civilization: If Mars was the 'war' planet, Astrus was the 'armageddon' heap-of-rubble:-- [2]

The archaic Astrus-pair planets between Mars and Jupiter, had deeper atmospheres tending maybe Jupiter-like, superficially cold at high altitude under 13% solar luminance at orbit distance: They may have had heavier carbon dioxide "greenhouse" atmospheres as are common with Venus and Earth though chemically entrained on Earth; And they would have been warmer at some viable depth; And quite possibly Astrus was the effectual incubator for our solar system:- it's lower mass and thicker atmosphere being readily escapable by advanced civilization(s) ... (which may have then destroyed [3] its own evidences).

Either way, it was apparently destroyed, And any civilization would likely have had a beginning of spacer culture, -but even as we find on Earth: a small expensive spacer culture,-- which would have left without most of the burgeoning planetary culture; and a few spacer castaways would have resorted to then-dinosaurial planet Earth, estimably billions of years ago. Major pieces of Astrus may have gone into Earth-crossing 'Apollo' cometary orbits about the sun, and resulted in extinction cycles ....

What doesn't fit civilizations so well, is that we don't find a lot of mankind on Earth until recent six millennia, And that doesn't allow for much active spacer culture: it was likely neither prepared nor disinterested to leave the solar system when Earth was pole-to-pole clement albeit bombarded by comets ... unless their method of space-transport was not, advanced, or, involved fewer, or, spore-forma.

[1] after the first-discovered, major asteroid Ceres; 2006-redesignation.
[2] Scriptural exegetic theory recently gaining corroborative support contends that significant solar system information was previously available to remonstrative society, and a few wise(r)men redacted stories upon facts, and that Scripture is not so much future predicted, as past-history redacted: In particular ST John's desciptions of a large beast with seven heads and ten horns is an approximation for Jupiter, a smaller beast with two horns is Mars; Astrus as we discussed here, and then our Earth, was their new-Earth without deuterium-rich-explosive sea ... even as is now deducible that ST John heard the neutrino-burst horn of Pluton;-- Thus it may be that society has a distant connection to planet Astrus.
[3] possibly by deuterium-core detonation if Astrus were a tiny "Jupiter" with an ordinary rocky core under a bulky atmosphere;- as proof of its spacer-success.

A premise discovery under the title,