During the second half of the 18th century, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant and French mathematician Pierre-Simon de Laplace launched a hypothesis that fascinated the world and led to massive debates. Proposed by the former and developer by the latter, the theory argued that the solar system formed from cosmic gas and dust, which created a massive cloud.
In time new research encouraged astronomers and other scientists to agree that the hypothesis can be accepted as a theory, and the consensus is popular among the scientific community. However, nothing is perfect, and a few controversies continue to persist.
It was previously thought that the current configuration of the solar system is the result of more than 700 million years of evolution after the formation. This theory is contradicted by new data, which argues that the period was considerably shorter, at about 100 million years.
Our Solar System Formed Much Sooner Than Initially Believed
This interesting approach is spearheaded by a team of Brazilian researchers who collected and analyzed a significant amount of damage. A considerable portion of the data was focused on detailed observations of the solar system, which allowed the researchers to calculate the trajectory followed by many of the objects which orbit the sun.
More than 4.6 billion years ago, young planets followed orbits, which took them closer to each other and the sun, as they were more co-planar and circular in comparison to the present ones. For example, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn followed compact orbits, and their motions where synchronized due to the influence of resonant chains. This synchronicity was, in its turn, influenced by the primordial gas disk and the gravitational dynamics of each planet.
Due to a series of factors, the gravitational balance of the system was compromised, and a period of anarchy began as planets followed altered orbits. An in-depth exploration of the phenomena can be found in the study, which was published in a scientific journal.
