Without Jupiter, primitive Earth might have drifted too close to the sun, rendering it incapable of hosting life, a study from Rice University in Houston reveals.
That’s one potential interpretation from new research that started with another curiosity: Scientists have long wondered why the earliest solid objects in the solar system didn’t all form at the same time. Evidence from meteorites, the rocky space debris that falls to Earth, shows two distinct generations of these planet-building supplies. Though the first group formed quickly, within the first million years, the second group, which produced the rocky blocks closer to Earth, Mars, and Venus, didn’t form until 2 or 3 million years later. How enough dust remained to make this second wave of material, though, has been a mystery.
To find out, researchers ran detailed computer simulations of the young solar system. The results, which appear in the journal Science Advances, point to Jupiter — whose mass today is more than double that of all the other planets combined — as the key player. Prior to this study, a model didn’t exist that could fully account for the age gap in the ancient planet-building material. This research may be the first to combine how Jupiter grew, dust moved, and asteroids formed into one explanation.
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