Jupiter Got So Big by Gobbling Up Baby Planets, Astronomers Say

Jupiter, the second-largest object in the solar system after the Sun, has drawn at least 80 moons and may be liable for destabilizing the orbits of several other solar system. According to astronomers, Jupiter got so big by gobbling up baby planets.

Jupiter Got So Big by Gobbling Up Baby Planets Astronomers Say

According to Greco-Latin legend, Saturn the Titan devoured his offspring after being prophesied that one of them would overthrow him. But when it comes to the solar system, it appears Jupiter may be the one with a taste for its own kinfolk, claims a recent study.

The theory, which is based on discoveries made by the Juno mission regarding the composition of the gas giant, was presented in a new study just published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (read below).

The formation of Jupiter from the nebula that produced our Sun and the rest of the solar system is the subject of several theories, according to experts. The two main ideas vary on whether the planet primarily attracted little pebbles or larger rocky planetesimals that were on the verge of agglomerating into planets. Both theories concur that the planet absorbed enormous amounts of hydrogen and helium from the nebula.

They claimed that if it were pebbles, there would be little evidence of that on the planet’s surface, and if it were bigger planetesimals, there would still be evidence of a “non-homogenous distribution of heavy elements” in the region of the planet where they collided.

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The scientists searched for those telltale indications beneath Jupiter’s surface layers and discovered them employing data from the older Galileo satellite and newer gravity measurements from the Juno probe that entered Jupiter’s orbit in 2016.

“Our results imply that Jupiter continued to accrete heavy elements in large amounts while its hydrogen-helium envelope was growing, contrary to predictions based on the pebble-isolation mass in its simplest incarnation, favoring instead planetesimal-based or more complex hybrid model,” the study’s conclusion notes.

Jupiter, the second-largest object in the solar system after the Sun, has drawn at least 80 moons and may be liable for destabilizing the orbits of several other solar system objects due to its strong gravitational influence, which causes its barycenter with the Sun to be above the star’s surface.

The Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet, which was grabbed by Jupiter’s gravity and split into pieces before crashing with it in 1994, is one of the objects that it still pulls in. For several months after the comet’s impact, the 21 fragments’ scarring on the planet’s southern bands could be clearly seen.

Read the document below:

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