Thursday, April 20 2023 – 18:01 WIB
LIVE Techno – When astronomers look at the orbits of the planets, they feel like there is a ‘lost’ planet between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. In fact, between the two there is an asteroid belt which is a collection of large and small rocky objects.
Could this be a lost planet? Astronomers think that Jupiter formed early enough that its gravity ruined the chances of other planets gathering in the region between Mars and Jupiter.
When adding up the total masses of all the objects in the asteroid belt, observers will end up with material about the same size as Rhea, Saturn’s relatively small moon. So these objects can’t really be called planets.
However, on the day Jupiter formed, there may have been much more material in this region than we see today. Jupiter’s strong gravity will reach out and disrupt planetesimal orbits in the region.
Some will be flung out into the outer Solar System, and others will be pushed inward to collide with the Sun or crash into the inner planets.
It’s also possible that a planet existed in the early Solar System, but then there was a massive crash that sent it off course and spiraled inward or outward, never to be seen again.
Storm sightings on the Planet Jupiter.
Photo :
- NASA, ESA, CSA, JUPITER ERS TEAM
