According to researchers, it's all about the orbit of a giant planet.
Scientists from the University of California in Riverside stated that , that Earth might have been an even more habitable planet if Jupiter's orbit had been slightly different. According to Science Alert, this is an important discovery because there are many components that can affect the hospitality of a planet to life.
In addition, this discovery may also help to better understand what makes habitable planets so.< /p>
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“If Jupiter's position remained the same and the shape of its orbit changed, it could increase the habitability of our planet. Many are convinced that Earth is the epitome of a habitable planet and that any change in the orbit of Jupiter, a massive planet, can only be bad for Earth. We show that both assumptions are wrong,” says planetary scientist Pam Vervoort of the University of California, Riverside.
The study is also important for the search for habitable worlds outside the solar system, as it provides a set of parameters by which to determine the potential population.
In 2019, scientists published a study in which they showed, based on simulations, that a change in Jupiter's orbit could make the entire solar system unstable. In a new study, scientists have shown that the reverse process also takes place.
Currently, Jupiter's orbit is only slightly elongated, it is almost round. But if it stretches out, it will affect the entire solar system, since the gas giant is 2.5 times more massive than all the planets combined.
That is, if you change the eccentricity of Jupiter, it will change the gravitational effect that it has on the other planets. For Earth, this also means an increase in eccentricity. That is, some parts of the planet will move closer to the Sun, warming to a moderate and habitable range.
But if Jupiter moves closer to the Sun, Earth's habitability will be threatened. Our planet will tilt on its axis much more than it does now, resulting in more severe seasonal variations. That is, even larger areas of the Earth will freeze, and the change of seasons will become more extreme. The area of winter sea ice will be four times larger than it is now.
The scientists believe that the results of their simulations can be applied to any multiplanet systems discovered in the future to determine their viability. At the same time, researchers emphasize that many factors had to merge together for the Earth to become habitable.
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There are so many such factors that life on our planet could never have developed. It is also unknown what will happen if the solar system ever becomes destabilized.
