The big mystery is answered by lost asteroids

According to computer simulations, missing asteroids in our solar system may be the result of angry giant planets as they migrate to their current locations.

Researchers know that planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune migrate for the first few million years when they appear. Computer simulations show that these giant planets may have disturbed asteroids when they were hiding, leaving 'vestiges' to match the actual model in the asteroid belt.

David Minton, a planetary science researcher at the University of Arizona at Tucson, said: 'This is really a proof that the traces of planetary migration are still present in the distribution of asteroids. fine '.

Type of planetary migration

Previous evidence suggests that giant planets once formed a more crowded cluster. But their gravitational interaction with the larger Kuiper belt - this is a cold region outside Neptune that is filled with northern-like objects - eventually becomes a fuel source for the traveling process. residence.

Replying to Space.com, Minton said: 'Every time big planets throw Kuiper objects around, they will move a bit'.

Jupiter ended up moving closer to the sun, while other giant planets moved farther away from the sun and farther apart. Minton and Renu Malhotra - another planetary research expert at the University of Arizona - are keen to study the potential impact of that instability.

The main gap is evidence

For the first time, scientists looked at the current shape of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which remains generally stable for 4 billion years. Astronomers have discovered a series of major ring holes known as Kirkwood holes since the 1860s. These unstable regions have almost no asteroids due to the force of force. Current gravity of Jupiter and Saturn.

The main annual belt between Mars and Jupiter's orbit contains countless asteroids.(Photo: Chart - Minor Planet Center; image - John Hopkins University / NASA Applied Physics Laboratory)

The researchers began the simulation process by allocating asteroids in the main belt with a diameter greater than 30 miles (50 km) but in fact much larger than the remaining asteroids. In reality. The asteroid belt simulates matching the real asteroid belt on the opposite side to the sun with only Kirkwood holes, but the asteroid belt is in fact largely free of asteroids on the opposite side. with Jupiter.

The problems gathered when Minton and Malhotra conducted other simulations which included the migration of giant planets. The simulated asteroid model then surprisingly matched the current main belt shape.

Damage in the vicinity

Giant planets may have scarred our solar system in other ways. The planets of the inner system suffered from heavy bombardment from 3.9 billion years ago. Some scientists argue that this phase can fluctuate asteroid collisions, not simply the chaos of the process of normal planet formation.

The new simulation method may suggest that this bombardment is a side effect of the planet's strong migration process, when asteroids in the main belt are deviated like stray bullet.

Minton stressed: 'We cannot help but interfere with the study when migration occurs, it is a reliable mechanism. Once asteroids are kicked out of the belt, they are forced to stop somewhere. The Earth, the moon and even Mars are ideal destinations for these asteroids. '

However, the conclusion to this hypothesis still needs more evidence to support it.