Erratic orbits caused asteroid belt gap
FEB 26, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.023099
ScienceNow : Billions of years ago, the four biggest planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—lurched through the solar system, tearing out large chunks of the main asteroid belt, according to new computer simulations. The findings explain why the belt contains several gaps, and they support the increasingly popular hypothesis that planets tend to migrate in their orbits for a long time after a solar system is formed.
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
