Our Solar system began as a disk of dust and gas 4.6 billion years ago.
Scientists from the U.S. found out that the rocky core of Jupiter was formed less than a million years after the formation of the Solar system.
Over the next two or three million years – it grew to the size of 50 times the mass of the Earth.
“Thanks to computer models of the birth of Jupiter first time we can say about Jupiter on the basis of measurements carried out in the laboratory,” said study co-author Thomas Kruger, researcher at National laboratory Lawrence Livermore in California.
Our Solar system began as a disk of dust and gas 4.6 billion years ago. The first planets were the so-called gas giants. Astronomers suspect that Jupiter is the oldest gas giant, as it gained more material from the dust-gas disk than the younger planet.
Moreover, he has acted as a barrier, which protected the inner Solar system from meteorites. Jupiter’s gravity was strong enough to prevent the passage of meteorites outside its orbit.
“About 1 billion years ago Jupiter becomes large enough to cut the inner Solar system from the outer part of the Solar system,” said planetary scientist Brandon Johnson of brown University.
© 2017, paradox. All rights reserved.
