The big gap

Ashton Edwards
By Ashton Edwards
Astronomy
The big gap

Turbulent past: When the solar system formed, space was still full of gas, dust and rock in the protoplanetary disk. Gravity formed today’s planetoids and planets. The gas giant Jupiter got most of the mass and cleared the surrounding area – a huge gap opened up in the disk. The planetoid belt between Jupiter and Mars still contains relics from the time when it was formed.
©NASA/JPL-Caltech

Meteorites are archives of the past. New studies on them suggest that the formation of the giant planet Jupiter caused the solar system to be separated into an inner and an outer region.

by THOMAS BÜHRKE

In December 2020, a discus-shaped capsule landed in the Australian desert

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