22-05-2025
Architect of Solar System: New study reveals how Jupiter constructed our world
Jupiter is considered the largest planet in our Solar System, so big that it can fit 1,300 Earths inside. But that's now, there was a time when Jupiter was twice as big as it is gravity of the planet is so strong that astronomers consider it as one of the most influential factors in the evolution and creation of our Solar call it the architect as it played a critical role in shaping the orbital paths of other planets and sculpting the disk of gas and dust from which they formed.
A new study now provides first look at Jupiter as it was in the beginning, roughly 3.8 million years after the solar system's first solids formed. Jupiter was significantly larger and had an even more powerful magnetic field.
Jupiter's magnetic field at that time was approximately 50 times stronger. (Photo: Nasa)
"Our ultimate goal is to understand where we come from, and pinning down the early phases of planet formation is essential to solving the puzzle. This brings us closer to understanding how not only Jupiter but the entire solar system took shape," Konstantin Batygin, professor of planetary science at Caltech new study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, focussed on Jupiter's tiny moons Amalthea and Thebe, which orbit even closer to Jupiter than Io, the smallest and nearest of the planet's four large Galilean team said that because Amalthea and Thebe have slightly tilted orbits, analysed these small orbital discrepancies to calculate Jupiter's original size. It was approximately twice its current radius, with a predicted volume that is the equivalent of over 2,000 that's not all, the researchers also determined that Jupiter's magnetic field at that time was approximately 50 times stronger than it is today. "It's astonishing that even after 4.5 billion years, enough clues remain to let us reconstruct Jupiter's physical state at the dawn of its existence," Fred C. Adams, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Michigan team focused on the orbital dynamics of Jupiter's moons and the conservation of the planet's angular momentum—quantities that are directly measurable. Their analysis establishes a clear snapshot of Jupiter at the moment the surrounding solar nebula results add crucial details to existing planet formation theories, which suggest that Jupiter and other giant planets around other stars formed via core accretion, a process by which a rocky and icy core rapidly gathers Watch
