Jupiter may have swept through the early solar system like a wrecking ball, destroying a first generation of
inner planets before retreating into its current orbit, according to a study from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Mercury is the last of the rocky
inner planets in our solar system -- also counting Mars and Venus -- to be littered by mankind.
That the four
inner planets are relatively small and rocky, while the outer planets are primarily gas-giants.
"This work is a great step towards tying together our understanding of the orbits of the outer planets of our solar system and those of the
inner planets," said Dayton Jones of Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
He covers the origin of the Solar System, planets and their orbits, planetary differentiation, magnetic fields, planetary atmospheres, the geological development of the
inner planets, volcanism within the inner Solar System, Earth's moon, the outer planets, moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and moons of Uranus and Neptune.
These four
inner planets all measure less than 1.5 times the size of Earth.
This showed that the dwarfs were "polluted" with silicon - the element found in the rocky material that makes up the Earth, the other
inner planets in our Solar System, and its asteroids.
AFP/Washington Scientists have announced new evidence that Mercury, the planet orbiting nearest the Sun, hosts massive caches of ice and revealed new information on how water reached our solar system's
inner planets.
Among the topics are national and international programs in planetary science, priority questions, the
inner planets as a key to understanding Earth-like worlds, the active worlds and extreme environments of satellites, recommended flight investigations, and the role of technology development in planetary exploration.
By measuring the sizes and masses of the five
inner planets, we determined they are among the lowest mass confirmed planets beyond our solar system."