Earth will lose its oceans. Chaos may destabilize the rocky planets. The Sun will go red giant and swallow the inner planets. The outer planets’ orbits will widen as the Sun becomes a white dwarf. Passing stars will destabilize the planets’ orbits and, in about 100 billion years, finally strip away the last planet. … More The end of the Solar System
The list of factors needed for life to originate on Earth remains uncertain, although water was essential. Earth’s water was likely delivered by planetesimals scattered inward by Jupiter. Yet, ironically, Earth would probably be much wetter with no Jupiter. … More Water delivery and the origin of life on Earth
TL;DR: The giant planets underwent a dynamical instability that shook up the entire Solar System and likely ejected an extra ice giant. The instability happened early, perhaps triggered by the dispersal of the gaseous planet-forming disk. … More The giant planet instability (the “Nice model”)
TL;DR: Most giant planets form in a bottom-up way, by first growing large cores and then piling gas on top. They migrate throughout their formation. Jupiter may have protected Earth from migrating ice giants. … More Growth and migration of the giant planets
This is chapter 3 in the Solar System’s story. We’re chugging along, growing bigger and bigger things… Planetesimal accretion After mountain-sized (~100 km-scale) planetesimals form from concentrations of drifting pebbles, they continue to grow in two ways. The simplest growth route for planetesimals is simply to crash into other planetesimals; this is called planetesimal accretion. … More From planetesimals to planetary “embryos”
This blog series will discuss what we know (and don’t know) about the formation and evolution of our Solar System. … More The Solar System’s story
Just like a doofus with the remote control bouncing between two TV shows, planets can bounce between stars in a binary system… … More Star-hoppers: planets bouncing between binary stars
Time for an astro-thought experiment. You belong to a super-advanced civilization with the ability to shape the cosmos as you wish. You can move around black holes, stars, planets, comets and moons (like the builders of the ultimate planetary systems). What would your civilization plan for big celebrations? What are their ‘fireworks’? What astronomical phenomena … More Cosmic fireworks!
If too many rocks hit a planet by chance
It breaks up the system’s whole resonant dance! … More Bombardment of 7 orbs
This post starts off with some world-building, jumps into eclipses and moons’ orbits, and finishes with a brand new Kalgash system that Isaac Asimov would be proud of (dropped into darkness every 2000 years!). More than one planet can share the same orbit around a star. This is not big news: the concept of Trojan … More Cohorts of stars orbiting black holes (with planets, moons, and eclipses!)
PLANETPLANET 