It is the largest and oldest planet. It might seem peaceful, but was it like this when it was younger?
The birth of the Jupiter
After the sun was formed, Jupiter was the first to form. It was created by gas and dust being pulled to form the giant. It also took most of the mass after the suns formation. Jupiter could have been a star, but it didn’t grow big enough. Today, I had a question about it. Is It friend or foe?
The Rampage
When Jupiter was younger, it did something alarming. It went towards the sun. When it was filling a gap in the planetesimal disk, it underwent something called type || migration. That caused it it to go inwards towards the sun. It has a powerful gravitational force because of its size, but it is only 2.4 times greater than Earth because it’s made of gases. Anyways, because of its gravitational force it stopped the growths of some planets like Ceres which is now going to be living as an asteroid for the rest of its life. Mars also had kind of the same fate. When Jupiter came in to the inner solar system, it took a lot of mass from there. This also caused Mars to become smaller than Earth and Venus. It only stopped when Saturn locked it in something called orbital resonance which caused Jupiter to go to its place where it is right now. An orbital resonance is when two orbiting things put gravitational force on each other mostly because their periods of orbiting are similar by a ratio of small numbers. That number` is 5.2 AU from the sun.
Jupiter- Friend or Foe?
At the end of “The Birth Of Jupiter” I asked if it was a friend or foe? Well, it’s a friend! Today, Jupiter protects us from comets and it was also responsible for giving Earth comets with water allowing Earth to sustain life. But be careful! It can also be a foe! According to “Nova”, it was responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs.
The Conclusion
So now that we know that Jupiter is a friend and can also be a foe, I encourage you to learn more about space. If you put it in the comments, I might be able to write an article on it. One more last thing. Keep a lookout for my next article! Ciao!
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