“Why the Inner Planets of the Solar System Haven’t Collided: Scientists Explain”

Merdeka.com – Scientists say that the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system that include Earth should have collided with each other a long time ago, but that has not happened until recently.

It should be noted that the inner solar system in question includes four planets namely Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These four planets should probably have been in touch with each other because their orbits, which scientists call so chaotic.

However, a new study published in the journal Physical Review X may finally shed some light on why these planets have managed to survive the orbital chaos.

Quoted from the page LiveScienceSaturday (13/5), through in-depth research on planetary motion models, researchers found that the motions on the planets are limited by certain parameters that act as anchors that hinder system chaos.

The inner planets are more active in exerting a mutual gravitational pull on each other, so they tend to have more difficulty maintaining stable orbits.

In 1989, Jacques Laskar, astronomer and Director of Research at the National Center, calculated the Lyapunov time characteristics or the time needed for two paths that previously had almost identical initial conditions until they finally diverged from each other.

As a result, for the orbits of the planets of the inner solar system, they take as long as 5 million years to diverge from each other.

“That means we are basically losing one digit every 10 million years,” he said.

If you look at the age, the solar system itself is predicted to be more than 4.5 billion years old, but the absence of the phenomenon of collisions between planets to date is enough to raise a big question mark for scientists.

Warriors then simulated the trajectories of the inner planets in this solar system for the next 5 billion years. As a result, he found only a 1 percent chance of collisions between planets. Using the same approach, he calculated that it would take, on average, about 30 billion years for one of the planets to collide.

Intern reporter: Safira Tiur Margaretha

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