XPost: alt.science, alt.space
https://futurism.com/jupiter-previously-twice-current-size
Scientists Find Jupiter Used to Be More Than Twice Its Current Size
You don't need us to tell you that Jupiter, which has more than
twice the mass of all the other planets in the Solar System
combined, is the biggest game in town (other than the Sun,
at least.)
But believe it or not, it may have once been even bigger. Try
more than double its current size, according to new research
from Caltech and the University of Michigan — boasting enough
volume to fit 2,000 Earths inside it with room to spare.
Over time, the bloated world cooled off, contracting to the
relatively humbler size it is today.
... calculations revealed that, around 4.5 billion years ago,
Jupiter must have had a radius up to 2.5 times greater than
it is today.
. . .
Binary star systems ARE more common than our single-star
kind. Somewhere during consolidation, some kinds of
asymmetry creep in and you get two mutually-orbiting
gas blobs - and soon two suns.
Jupiter WOULD have been our 2nd sun - but never quite
got enough material.
What happened to the other half of Jupiter ? The more
recent models suggest it started off quite close to
our sun and then slowly moved outwards. Being so
close surely had serious corrosive effects, blasting
off atmosphere. SOME probably would up helping to
form Saturn.
Pure luck the little inner planets survived the
dynamics of the giant planets moving around.
Fair chance there were MORE inner planets, and
some did NOT survive.
It's all "pot-luck" here folks.
Note the figure of 2.5 times the RADIUS ... do the
math, this would have represented a HUGE amount
more MASS. Still not enough to create a star, but ...
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