Published review from Australian & New Zealand Physicist
Review of Dark Matter, Missing Planets & New Comets:
From Australian & New Zealand Physicist, Vol. 30 #9, Sept. 1993,review by Colin Keay, Assoc. Professor of Physics, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW
"... One astronomer who wants to be right in on the ground floor when the foundations are rocked is Tom Van Flandern, a Yale graduate who for many years directed the Celestial Mechanics Branch of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. ... In planetary science, Dr. Van Flandern pursues the idea of a major planetary explosion about 3 million years ago which gave birth to comets and the asteroid belt. There is no doubt that his scheme answers many problems and enigmas about the solar system, in particular those revealed by the Voyager spacecraft, and has made some useful predictions such as the unexpected incidence of many-body asteroids. But at the same time his opponents freely return a great many counter arguments to the planetary breakup model. However, Dr. Van Flandern has boldly tackled a much bigger issue than the mere reorganization of our solar system. He questions conventional wisdom on the nature of gravity, especially that sacred cow: general relativity. He was alerted by a persistent observation which came to his notice while directing work on celestial mechanics for the Nautical Almanac Office. The position of the visible Sun differs by 20 arc seconds from the dynamical Sun, to an accuracy of better than one arc second. This implies that the influence of gravity on the Earth-Moon system, and all other bodies orbiting the Sun, travels at least twenty times faster than the velocity of light. If the speed of gravity is faster than light there is no need to invoke black holes, or to have a big-bang to set the universe rolling. The galaxy missing mass is solved immediately without need for MACHOs or WIMPs. Maybe Halton (Chip) Arp has been correct all along about non-velocity redshifts. And there are many more puzzles, for example, VLBI-measured proper motions of quasars (if confirmed), which may have simple explanations. ..."