Jupiter was shaping Earth's fate before our planet even existed, carving gaps in the early solar system that kept its building blocks from plunging into the sun, a new study finds.
Led by scientists at Rice University in Houston, the study suggests Jupiter's early growth cut off the flow of gas and dust toward the inner solar system, preventing the material that would one day form Earth, Venus and Mars from spiraling into the sun. In doing so, scientists say the planet's gravity not only stabilized the inner planets' orbits but also shaped the structure of the solar system, carving out rings and gaps that influenced how, and when, rocky bodies formed.
