Which Planet Came First?
Which planet was created first in our solar system? The solar system was born around 4.6 billion years ago. And it seems Jupiter was an early bloomer.
Computer simulations show Jupiter's mass may have grown 20 times that of Earth in the first one million years. The gas giant reached 50 times the mass of Earth at around the 3 million to 4 million year mark.
And as it got bigger, Jupiter was pulled towards the sun, acting as a wrecking ball and destroying small planets. It scooped up more material for itself and caused other debris to fly into the sun where it was destroyed.
Luckily, Saturn was able to pull Jupiter back into its current orbit. But material was now in short supply for the much smaller inner planets to be formed.
Without Jupiter, we could have had a Neptune where Earth is and there would probably be no Earth.
#astronomy #astrophotography
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