Young Solar System’s Fifth Giant Planet? Options

[alan]

During the last couple years there have been a few papers published showing that for the Nice model to produce our solar system Jupiter and Saturn had to be separated quickly. The solution offered for this issue was encounters between one of the ice giants and Saturn and Jupiter in turn, the first pushing Saturn out and the ice giant in and the second pushing Jupiter in and the ice giant out, thus increasing the separation of Jupiter and Saturn in two large jumps. This was referred to as the Jumping Jupiter Model. A problem with this model was when the ice giant encountered Jupiter it was often ejected.

A recent paper offers a solution to this problem: the solar system started with five giant planets, one of which was lost after its encounter with Jupiter.

Young Solar System’s Fifth Giant Planet?


ADMIN - Thread title edit to be less inflammatory and rule breaking

[tasp]

Jupiter's effect inward in the asteroid belt (Kirkwood gaps, etc.) being almost trivial in comparison to the effects outward. The word 'careening' kept springing to mind as I read the paper.

Appreciate the paper, and I note it's relevance in comprehending the weird and wonderful planetary systems Kepler is finding for us.