The Origin of the Solar System in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 256, 1960, pp. 245-266
London: Royal Society, 1960. 1st Edition. HANDSOME FIRST EDITION OF MCCREA’S “PROTOPLANET THEORY” OF THE CREATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM in which the Sun and planets individually coalesced from matter within the same cloud, with the smaller planets later captured by the Sun's larger gravity.
After the 1687 publication of Newton’s Principia, the heliocentric nature of the solar system with its major components – the Sun, planets and satellites – was so firmly established that it became possible to apply scientific principles to the problem of the solar system’s origin.
“Most theories that have been advanced in the last 300 years are obviously untenable, but some contain the germs of what might be part of a viable theory” (Oxford Journal of Science & Mathematics, Volume 41, Issue 1, pp. 1.12). William McCrea’s protoplanet theory is one of a very small group of theories “that have a reasonable scientific basis” (ibid).
In this paper, McCrea presents his theory linking planetary formation with the production of a stellar cluster and also explained the slow rotation of the Sun. “McCrea's starting point was a cloud of gas and dust that was to form a galactic cluster. Due to turbulence, gas streams collided and produced regions of higher-than-average density. The high-density regions, referred to as “floccules”, moved through the cloud and combined whenever they collided. When a large aggregation formed, it attracted other floccules in its region so producing a protostar. Since floccules joined the accreting protostar from random directions, the net angular momentum of the protostar was small; for a particular set of parameters it would be only a few times the present angular momentum of the Sun and the excess can be removed after formation by various physical processes.
“It was assumed that star-forming regions were isolated and McCrea showed that the angular momentum contained in a region due to the original floccules was much greater than that residing in the protostar. The missing angular momentum was assumed to be taken by smaller aggregations of floccules that were captured by the protostar to form a set of planets”(ibid).
McCrea presented papers on the protoplanet theory in 1960, 1963, and 1978 – the first paper, this paper, being the most important. While the theory retains a number of problems, further investigation (Melita and Woolfson, 1996), have shown it to be implausible but not impossible. “It has some good features but there are a number of important assumptions that cannot be justified in the present state of knowledge. Some of these assumptions, for example relating to the way that angular momentum appears in the final star cluster, are amenable to investigation by numberical modeling. On the other hand, the assumption relating to the formation of proto-planet blobs has implicitly been investigated by Woolfson (1979) and this indicates that stars are formed earlier and otherwise in the development of the star-forming cloud. Some answers to this and other criticisms would be necessary to promote the proto-planet theory to the status of plausibility” (Woolfson, The Origin and Evolution of the Solar System, 375-376). Item #591
CONDITION & DETAILS: London: The Royal Society. Complete volume. 4to. 9.75 by 7 inches (213 x 138mm). [8], 588, [4]. Ex-libris bearing no marks whatsoever on the spine or endpapers; small number stamped at the foot of the contents page and lightly penciled library note on the rear of the title page. The volume is illustrated throughout with in-text figures and 4 plates. Handsomely rebound; gilt lettered at the spine. The marbled paper boards were purposefully scuffed by the binder in order that the book, though rebound, appears somewhat aged. Solidly and very tightly bound. Bright and clean throughout. Fine condition.
Price: $225.00