Astronomy
It?s something like an interplanetary chess game, where Jupiter bumped a giant planet out of our solar system and may have said,"This solar system isn?t big enough for the both of us."
Astrophysicists at the University of Toronto have found that a close encounter with Jupiter about four billion years ago may have resulted in another planet?s ejection from the Solar System altogether.
The existence of a fifth giant gas planet at the time of the Solar System?s formation, in addition to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune was first proposed in 2011. But if it did exist, how did it get pushed out? For years, scientists have suspected the ejector was either Saturn or Jupiter.
"Our evidence points to Jupiter," said study's lead author Ryan Cloutier from the University of Toronto.
Planet ejections occur as a result of a close planetary encounter in which one of the objects accelerates so much that it breaks free from the massive gravitational pull of the Sun.
However, earlier studies which proposed that giant planets could possibly eject one another did not consider the effect such violent encounters would have on minor bodies, such as the known moons of the giant planets, and their orbits.
So Cloutier and his colleagues turned their attention to moons and orbits, developing computer simulations based on the modern-day trajectories of Callisto and lapetus, the regular moons orbiting around Jupiter and Saturn respectively.
They then measured the likelihood of each one producing its current orbit in the event that its host planet was responsible for ejecting the hypothetical planet, an incident which would have caused significant disturbance to each moon?s original orbit.
"Ultimately, we found that Jupiter is capable of ejecting the fifth giant planet while retaining a moon with the orbit of Callisto," said Cloutier.
"On the other hand, it would have been very difficult for Saturn to do so because Iapetus would have been excessively unsettled, resulting in an orbit that is difficult to reconcile with its current trajectory,"he explained.
article reference:- news.utoronto.ca
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Astronomy
When Jupiter said, "This solar system isn?t big enough for the both of us."
Astrophysicists at the University of Toronto have found that a close encounter with Jupiter about four billion years ago may have resulted in another planet?s ejection from the Solar System altogether.
The existence of a fifth giant gas planet at the time of the Solar System?s formation, in addition to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune was first proposed in 2011. But if it did exist, how did it get pushed out? For years, scientists have suspected the ejector was either Saturn or Jupiter.
"Our evidence points to Jupiter," said study's lead author Ryan Cloutier from the University of Toronto.
Planet ejections occur as a result of a close planetary encounter in which one of the objects accelerates so much that it breaks free from the massive gravitational pull of the Sun.
However, earlier studies which proposed that giant planets could possibly eject one another did not consider the effect such violent encounters would have on minor bodies, such as the known moons of the giant planets, and their orbits.
So Cloutier and his colleagues turned their attention to moons and orbits, developing computer simulations based on the modern-day trajectories of Callisto and lapetus, the regular moons orbiting around Jupiter and Saturn respectively.
They then measured the likelihood of each one producing its current orbit in the event that its host planet was responsible for ejecting the hypothetical planet, an incident which would have caused significant disturbance to each moon?s original orbit.
"Ultimately, we found that Jupiter is capable of ejecting the fifth giant planet while retaining a moon with the orbit of Callisto," said Cloutier.
"On the other hand, it would have been very difficult for Saturn to do so because Iapetus would have been excessively unsettled, resulting in an orbit that is difficult to reconcile with its current trajectory,"he explained.
article reference:- news.utoronto.ca
- Big Planet, Small Star
One of the smallest stars in the Galaxy has been found to have a planet orbiting it that is six times more massive than Jupiter. This gas giant is as far from its star as Mercury is from our Sun, but because the star is so small, it is like a scaled...
- Our Neighbors In Space
We have a special feeling toward the other planets that circle our sun. Maybe it?s all the science fiction stories about visiting the moon, Mars and other planets. But we love to think about those planets that make up what we call ?the solar...
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We have a special feeling toward the other planets that circle our sun. Maybe it?s all the science fiction stories about visiting the moon, Mars and other planets. But we love to think about those planets that make up what we call ?the solar...