Jupiter (Photo : Reuters)
Scientists discovered that the solar system today should have more planets,but Jupiter wiped them all out.
Besides Earth, Mars, Venus and other recognized planets, a new study indicates that there were other bigger planets residing in the solar system.
Dubbed as "super-Earths," the wiped out planets were similar to the ones that can be found in the other parts of the galaxy.
The scientists wrote their findings on the Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences on Monday.
NASA's Kepler satellite found over a thousand planets orbiting around other clusters of stars. Over 4,000 more objects are speculated to be planets as well, but there is still no confirmation, according to LA Times.
As more and more planets were being discovered, the more the current solar system looked out of place. The exoplanets discovered were much bigger in size and number and orbits closer to their host stars.
Gregory Laughlin, a chair of astronomy and astrophysics at UC-Santa Cruz, blamed Jupiter for the lessened number of planets in the solar system.
"There were collisions -- high-speed smash-ups -- which made a lot of fragments, hitting other fragments, in a chain reaction," said Laughlin.
Coauthor Konstantin Batygin from Caltech and Laughlin started the study as they have observed that today's solar system is an anomaly compared to others.
The researchers came up with a theory named "The Grand Tack," which claims that Jupiter smashed other early planets into bits and pieces of debris.
Afterwards, Saturn sucked Jupiter back to its own orbit, according to Mercury News.
Meanwhile, the destroyed super-Earths floated into the sun, never to be seen again. Other debris then led to the formation of today's planets such as Mars, Mercury, Venus and Earth.
The researchers admitted that it is not the final explanation and that there may be others. However, they said that they were pleased as it fit nicely to a big astronomy puzzle.
