5 ms·
Forgive my ignorance but how is that different than the rest of the planets?
by nonethewiser 2y ago
Forgive my ignorance but how is that different than the rest of the planets?
- tliltocatl 2y agoThe rest of the planets are theorized to have condensed from the protoplanetary disk that formed the same molecular cloud the Sun did. I. e. they have formed at approximately same time as the sun and from same material, sans gravitational separation.
- swayvil 2y agoAh, so a captured body would be quite different and alien. Really old too. Like, first generation of stars.
- s1artibartfast 2y agoNot at all implied. It could be boring and younger too. 10x earth masses usually implies a gas giant.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- geuis 2y agoWould likely be older than the solar system itself. Probably not first gen star old, but likely would have formed before the sun did. Don't know how different it would be though. Would have formed out of maybe different ratios of elements than what was in the molecular cloud we formed from, but otherwise a large body like this would have undergone similar geological processes as our own planets.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- libraryofbabel 2y agoThe other planets formed from material in the same nebula (cloud of gas and dust) that collapsed to form the sun. The idea here is this planet would have been moving through the interstellar medium and just happened to pass close enough to the sun’s gravity well to get captured in a (very distant) orbit.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y agoCapture would be like a reverse gravitational slingshot? This planet happened to meet the sun at an angle where it lost enough energy to fall into orbit instead of slinging back out like those comets that come around on long cycles?
- tough 2y agogravitational capture
- marcosdumay 2y agoAFAIK, it could be in a 2 bodies slingshot, multi-body interaction with some other stuff on the Oort cloud, or tidal interaction (what could happen way more easily with a nebula).
- noah_buddy 2y agoA comet coming back on a long cycle is an orbit
- s1artibartfast 2y agoYou don't need to lose energy to enter orbit any more than you need to lose energy too roll a ball down a hill.
- tliltocatl 2y agoNot true. An obit is not an infinite "plain" with a finite "hill" on but rather a finite "valley". The ball will exit the valley on the other side unless it loses excess kinetic energy somewhere in the valley.