(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists conducted another study and found that before various planets, including the Earth, formed in the solar system, huge rings of dust could well exist around the sun. In their appearance, they could well resemble those rings that Saturn has.
The researchers suggest that these rings could be the reason that, as a result, our planet did not turn into a “super-earth”. This type of planet is 2 times larger than the Earth, and its mass is at least 10 times higher than that which is established today.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that earlier astronomers were able to detect the presence of “super-earths” practically next to 30% of the sun-like stars located in the Milky Way.
Astrophysicist Andre Isidoro of Rice University in Houston began the study after he was interested in the question of why there are no “super-earths” in the solar system, if they exist in many other systems of our galaxy. Together with his colleagues, he created a model for the formation of the solar system.
With the help of simulations, it was possible to find out that around the young Sun there must have been regions with incredibly high pressure of gas and dust. They could appear due to the fact that the particles began to move under the influence of gravity towards the Sun. Then they started to heat up and gave off a lot of vaporized gas.
Experts have found that there were three such areas, which were called “lines of sublimation.” It was in these areas that the evaporation of solid particles took place. This provoked the appearance of irregularities, because the solid silicate turned into gas and carbon monoxide.
Dust and other particles crashed into these “irregularities” and gradually accumulated. It is worth noting that if such pressure surges did not exist, the Sun would absorb absolutely everything that is around and would not allow particles to turn into planets.
Simulations also showed that the ring that was at its minimum distance from the Sun, as a result, formed the planets that are part of the inner solar system, and the middle ring turned into the planets of the outer solar system.
The last ring served as material for the appearance of comets, asteroids and many other objects that are located beyond the orbit of Neptune and are relatively small.
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