Jupiter 'wrecking ball' may have destroyed early planets

Jupiter may have acted like a giant wrecking ball in the newborn solar system, roaming in to destroy an early generation of inner planets before retreating to its current orbit, researchers say.

This Jupiter finding could help explain why the solar system is so different from the hundreds of other planetary systems that astronomers have recently discovered, and that life as it is known on Earth might be rarer than previously thought, the scientists added.

SEE ALSO: The strangest alien planets we know

In the past two decades or so, researchers have confirmed the existence of more than 1,800 planets orbiting distant stars. These discoveries have included nearly 500 systems that, like our solar system, possess multiple planets. Read more...

More about Sun, Earth, Jupiter, Us World, and Exoplanets



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