[NEBULOUS] Twisty's Theory on Planetary Densities

As an amateur to astrophysics, I had hoped to find something in all of this raw data that is made available about the planets in our Solar System. When this study branched into the Densities of local bodies, my investigation took a startling turn...

It was quickly apparent that the Earth is actually the most dense body in our solar system. This struck me as significant, for life is only known to exist on this here rock (while others will contend this), and even life on this planet becomes less tenable on the higher altitudes of its surface. Furthermore, the least dense planet in our Solar System is believed to be Saturn, which is well known for its splendid rings and is possibly the greatest spectacle of the planets. I can't help but think that it could not possess such beauty if it were not for its lightness of density. (A body of greater density would 'sphere up' more, finding less surface area per mass.)

Probing deeper, I decided that I should seek a mathematical correlation between the densities of the planets. I was momentarily disappointed to learn that Mercury is the second most dense body in our system. This broke up the idea that a linear correlation existed between the planets. Yet I was amazed to find a unique correlation between the most dense (us) and least dense (Saturn) planets, and each planet in between.
Diameter
(km)
Mass
(kg)
Density
(D=mass/vol)
(in kg per cubic km)
Orbital Distance
(km)
Orbital Distance
Earth-relative
dplanet/dEarth

Density times
Distance
"D*d"
(kg*kmorbit / kmVol3)

Mercury 4878 3.30000e+23 5.4299e+12 57900000 0.3870321 2.102e+12
Venus 12104 4.87000e+24 5.2450e+12 108200000 0.723262 3.793e+12
Earth 12742 5.98000e+24 5.5206e+12 149600000 1 5.521e+12
Mars 6794 6.42000e+23 3.9098e+12 227900000 1.5233957 5.956e+12
Ceres(ast) 974 1.17e+21 2.4183e+12 413900000 2.7667112 6.691e+12
Jupiter 142796 1.90000e+27 1.2463e+12 778300000 5.2025401 6.484e+12
Saturn 120000 5.69000e+26 6.2888e+11 1427000000 9.5387701 5.999e+12
Uranus 56460 8.69000e+25 9.2214e+11 2871000000 19.191176 1.770e+13
Neptune 48600 1.02000e+26 1.6970e+12 4497100000 30.060829 5.101e+13
Pluto 2250 1.31000e+22 2.1965e+12 5914000000 39.532086 8.683e+13

As one can see, the product of a planet's Density and its Orbital Distance from the Sun shows a most curious relationship. That product is within 8% of each other for each of those four adjacent planets. This is still true of five 'planets' if you even throw in Ceres, an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter which is believed to contain roughly half of the asteroidal mass within our Solar System!


Last Updated on July 26, 1996 by Joel 'Twisty' Nye