The great planetary instability, which saw Jupiter and the other gas giants wander chaotically through the solar system, coincides with the collision that formed Earth's moon. Could the two events be linked?
It would appear that the so-called"great instability" event that wreaked chaos among the planets, sending the gas giants careening through space until they settled into the orbits we know today, occurred between 60 and 100 million years after the birth of the solar system. This is the conclusion of some careful scientific detective work that has connected a type of meteorite to an asteroid that was once pushed around by those marauding planets.
In the young solar system, the four gas giant planets —Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — were nestled closer together. Over time, gravitational interactions with planetesimals beyond Neptune led to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune migrating outward. Meanwhile, Jupiter migrated inward, where scientists think it was, in turn, able to destabilize bodies in the inner solar system.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Scientists call the theory behind this orbital instability the"Nice Model," after the French city that houses the Côte d’Azur Observatory, where scientists originally developed the idea. Initially, those scientists thought this instability occurred between 500 and 800 million years after the birth of the solar system.
Something should have scattered the progenitor of the Athor family into the asteroid belt, and that"something," the team says, must have been the instability that led Jupiter to go wandering. EL chondrites thus make the perfect chronometers for this event because they should contain a clear record of what must have happened.
"Avdellidou specifically finds that the Nice Model itself — the giant planet's orbits going wild for a short 10 or 20 million year period — is the best and maybe only time to send asteroids into the region of this specific Athor asteroid family," said Walsh. Although there's no way to prove it."'Proof' is a strong statement and something difficult when we deal with events 4.5 billion years ago," said Avdellidou, though the scientist admits the collision that formed Earth's moon does seem to coincide with the great instability.
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