The solar system may have once been home to nine planets, but the ice giant may have been thrown out of our star system.
Researchers have found evidence that another ice giant, like Neptune, once existed in the solar system, which was located between Saturn and Uranus.
This would mean that there could be nine planets in the solar system, or 10 if Pluto is included.
Dr. Carnegie Matt Clement: 'It turned out that the arrangement of the planets in our solar system is very unusual, so we use models to reverse engineer and reproduce the processes of its formation.
It's a bit like trying to figure out what happened in a car accident, after the fact – how fast the cars were moving, in which direction, and so on. '
Through simulations, the team found that the final location of Uranus and Neptune, two planets at the outer edge of the solar system, was determined by the Kuiper Belt, the circumstellar disk of planetary debris and comets. '
The study also showed that the Kuiper belt helped 'throw the ice giant' when the solar system was still forming.
Not only has the team helped discover a potentially lost world, but the research could be used to search for life on other planets.
Dr. Clement continued: 'This indicates that while our solar system is a little strange, it wasn't always this way.
Moreover, now that we have established the effectiveness of this model, we can use it to help us look at the formation of terrestrial planets, including our own, and, possibly, inform our ability to look for similar systems in other places that could have potential for the existence of life. '
Sources: https://www.express.co.uk/ (photo: GETTY)
