Before the birth of the planets of our solar system, the sun may have had rings around it. These are circular formations composed of dust, similar to those that today surround Saturn. Surely the look would have been different, but would we have been different too? Well, with such a formed Sun, the Earth would be exactly as we live it today. Without these rings, however, there would have been the possibility of a Super Earth, between two and 10 times larger.
It all started with a study conducted by André Izidoro, an astrophysicist at Rice University in Houston. The scientist asked himself the question: “if super-Earths are so common, why don’t we have one in the Solar System?“. The term Super Earth, in this sense, refers exclusively to the mass of the planet, without considering the habitability or the similarity with our own globe.
As reported by Science Alert, Izidoro and his colleagues created a simulation model, able to trace the formation of the Solar System. With these simulations it was noted how high pressure regions of gas and dust would have surrounded the newborn Sun. These high pressure areas would probably have formed after the particles moved towards the Sun under its strong gravitational attraction, releasing large quantities. of vaporized gas. Simulations showed that there were probably three distinct areas in which the solid particles vaporized into gases, called “sublimation lines”. In the line closest to the Sun, the hottest zone, the solid silicate was transformed into gas; in the middle line, the ice would heat up enough to turn into gas; and in the furthest line, even carbon monoxide became gas. Solid particles such as dust would accumulate in the form of rings.
If these “bumps” of pressure had not existed, the Sun would have quickly engulfed the particles, leaving no ‘seeds’ for the growth of the planets. With age, the gas and dust surrounding the Sun cooled and the sublimation lines got closer and closer to the Sun. This process allowed the dust to aggregate, ‘accumulating’ over time the elements necessary for the formation of planets. .
The last hypothesis is therefore suggestive: the closest ring to the Sun would have formed the planets of the inner Solar System with Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The central ring would have been at the base of the planets of the outer solar system, while the outermost ring would have composed the current system of comets, asteroids and small celestial bodies in the Kuiper belt, the region beyond Neptune’s orbit. By simulating a delayed formation of the central ring, there would be room for the so-called Super Earths.
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