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Titius–Bode law

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Titius–Bode law

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Also known as Bode's law, Titius‐Bode law, Bode's Law

discredited hypothesis about Solar System planets' orbits

~20 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Titius–Bode law (sometimes termed simply Bode's law) is a formulaic prediction of spacing between planets in any given planetary system. The formula suggests that, extending outward, each planet should be approximately twice as far from the Sun as the one before. The hypothesis correctly anticipated the orbits of Ceres (in the asteroid belt) and Uranus, but failed as a predictor of Neptune's orbit. It is named after Johann Daniel Titius and Johann Elert Bode.

Later work by Mary Adela Blagg and D. E. Richardson significantly revised the original formula, and made predictions that were subsequently validated by new discoveries and observations. It is these re-formulations that offer "the best phenomenological representations of distances with which to investigate the theoretical significance of Titius–Bode type Laws".

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Titius–Bode law” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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