A a new study has found that before the birth of the planets in this solar system, the sun once had rings like Saturn around the sun. The rings prevent Earth from becoming a so-called ‘SuperEarth’, which is a world that is twice the size of Earth and has between three and 10 times its mass.
It should be noted, however, that the term ‘SuperEarth’ refers only to the size and mass of the exoplanet, without reference to atmospheric conditions or the ability to host life. The term refers to an exoplanet larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.
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According to the page Live Science, super-Earths are reported to be quite common in the overall scheme. Because astronomers have discovered a super-Earth orbiting about 30 percent of the sun-like stars in our galaxy.
In this solar system does have many puzzles that confuse researchers. But there is recent research that seems to have solved the puzzle. One study author believes that rings orbiting the sun billions of years ago are the cause of the lack of super-Earths in this solar system.
The research was carried out by astrophysicist Andrea Izidoro and colleagues at Rice University, the University of Bordeaux, the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. They have created a computer simulation model of the formation of the solar system, which shows that the sun is surrounded by a high pressure region of gas and dust called the ‘pressure lump in the sun’s protoplanetary disk’. The rings eventually formed the planets and were able to answer the question of why this solar system does not have a super-Earth.
According to the model, three bands of pressure bulge determine how planets form in the region. As the report explains, these high-pressure areas occur when the sun’s gravitational pull pulls particles from the three rings and vaporizes them with heat in a process called sublimation.
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In the ring closest to the sun, solid silicates turn into gases. Then in the middle ring, the ice will heat up to form water vapor. Then in the outer ring, carbon monoxide becomes a gas.
As we age, the gas and dust surrounding the sun cools and the sublimation line gets closer and closer to the sun. The process allows dust to accumulate into planetesimals or asteroid-sized planet seeds. “Our model shows the pressure bulge can concentrate dust, and the moving pressure bulge can act as a planetesimal factory,” said Izidoro.
Then the ring closest to the sun forms the planets in the inner solar system such as Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Then the middle ring eventually became the outer solar system planets. While the outer ring forms comets, asteroids, and other small objects. (frs)
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