Jupiter Created the Birthplace of Rocky Bodies in the Early Solar System

New research shows how and where different types of rocky bodies formed at different times following the Sun's formation. After Jupiter formed, it created a ring-shaped dust trap on the outside of its orbit. Differential gas pressure created the trap, and different types of rocky material gathered there at different times and in different amounts. This is how the Solar System's planetesimals formed, some of which grew into the rocky inner planets. Image Credit: MPS / hormesdesign.de

Jupiter helped create the different rocky bodies in the Solar System. The massive gas giant created a planet-induced pressure bump in the gas in the disk surrounding the young Sun. This pressure bump filtered different types of dust at different times, leading to the formation of planetesimals with different compositions at different times.

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