Stephen Kane’s Study
According to a study done by the University of California, Riverside (UCR), if there was an extra planet between Mars and Jupiter, it could knock Earth out of its orbit around the sun and kill off all living things.
The UCR astrophysicist Stephen Kane did this experiment with the goal of fixing two major problems in the field of planet science.
Earth is the largest planet in our solar system that we call a terrestrial planet. On the other hand, Neptune is the smallest of the giant gas planets and it is much bigger than Earth as it’s four times wider and 17 times more massive. In-between these two types of planets there are no others, nothing at all!
But in other systems, there are lots of planets with masses between Earth and Neptune. We call them super-Earths.
Scientists have noticed that there is a space between Mars and Jupiter, which is distant from the sun. They think this gap looks kind of empty compared to the other places in our solar system and want something to fill it up.
Kane tried to learn more about the structure of our solar system and how Earth changed over time by running computer simulations. They tested what would happen if a planet was added between Mars and Jupiter with different sizes, and then monitored other planets to see how their orbit paths altered in result.
Scientists published a study in which they found out that if there was an extra planet in our solar system, it would cause a lot of destruction. According to researcher Kane, this hypothetical planet’s gravitational pull would be enough to mess up the orbits of all other planets. Fortunately, no such extra planet exists, which is actually good news for us!
Jupiter is super huge and has a really big pull on the other planets. If something like another planet, a star or anything else passes by Jupiter, it will make all the other planets move in different ways.
If a super-Earth is big enough and located in the right place, it can push Mercury, Venus, Earth, Uranus and Neptune out of the Solar System. Its gravity could change our orbit so much that it would make life on Earth impossible or even end it altogether!
Kane figured out that if he made the planet smaller and put it right between Mars and Jupiter, it should stay stable for a long time. However, tiny changes in its location can cause trouble.
This study helps us understand how planets in other solar systems could support life. Gas giants like Jupiter, which tend to be farther away from the star, aren’t as common but they can influence if close Earth-like or super-Earth planets have steady orbits.
Stephen Kane’s research findings made him realize that the planets in our Solar System are very balanced and like a set of gears working together. He noted, “If we add more pieces, it can cause chaos in the system.
