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Journalism of Courage
In order to fill in what they consider a gap in the solar system, researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) ran dynamic computer simulations of a fictional planet between Mars and Jupiter. They then found that the results would mostly be disastrous for the solar system in general, and Earth in particular.
The astrophysicists initially set out to address what they considered two noticeable gaps in planetary science. The first is a gap in the size of terrestrial and gas giant planets in the solar system. Neptune, the smallest gas giant, is four times wider and 17 times more massive than Earth, which is the largest terrestrial planet in the solar system. There is no planet that falls in between these two. Another gap is the gap in location relative to the Sun, between Mars and Jupiter.
“In other star systems there are many planets with masses in that gap. We call them super-Earths. Planetary scientists often wish there was something in between those two planets. It seems like wasted real estate,” said UCR astrophysicist Stephen Kane, lead author of the research published in the Planetary Science Journal, in a press statement.
According to UCR, these gaps offer important insights into the inner workings of our system and how Earth and other planets evolved. To fill them in, the research ran dynamic simulations of a fictional planet between Mars and Jupiter and observed the effects that it would have on the orbits of all other planets.
“This fictional planet gives a nudge to Jupiter that is just enough to destabilize everything else. Despite many astronomers having wished for this extra planet, it’s a good thing we don’t have it,” said Kane, describing the results of the experiment.
The massiveness of Jupiter is hard to comprehend. It is much larger than all the other planets in the solar system combined. If something like the proposed “super-Earth,” or other objects like a passing star ever disturbed the gas giant even slightly, it would hold great consequences for all other planets in the system.
Depending on the size and the exact location of such a fictional super-Earth, it will eventually toss Mercury, Venus and Earth into outer space. In fact, it could even destabilise the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, throwing them out of the solar system as well.
But even before the super-Earth sends our planet careening through outer space, its presence would change the shape of Earth’s orbit, making it a lot less habitable, to the point where life might not even be possible on the planet.
