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Gravitational Effects can pull planets into their host stars or eject planets from a solar system
Gravity is a beautiful thing. It is the reason we stay rooted onto Earth and do not float away from it. It ensures everything instead of floating is drawn to the surface. Without gravity on Earth the water and the atmosphere of the planet would cease to exist. In short life as we know it cannot exist without gravity.
Perhaps we all know about the importance of gravity for life to survive on Earth. But how does gravity affect the relationship of planets with their host stars and their solar systems?
Going by its textbook definition gravity is the force that attracts a body towards another physical body having mass. This means anything with some amount of weight will attract smaller objects towards it.
However gravity effect's our solar system as well. Particularly Earth is affected from gravitational effects from the sun and the moon. Because of the moon's gravity the Earths oceans have waves and tides. Because of the sun's gravity the Earth orbits the sun and is not lost into space.
In some cases there have been live examples of the process at work. Even now Exo-planets too close to the sun are slowly being eaten up by their stars.
A planet WASP-18b may still live for Millions of years but it is well on its way to becoming a dead planet. Its extreme proximity to the sun and its less than a day orbit are resulting in powerful plasma tides on the planet. Its temperature is about 3,800 degrees C due to its proximity to the sun. In size it is ten times bigger than Jupiter. In a few Million years its host star will draw the planet into itself. As a result the planet has been termed a suicidal planet.
Hubble Space Telescope has captured evidence too that a Sun-like star is about to "eat" another planet. WASP-12b is 1,500 degrees C and completes its orbit in 1.1 Earth days. The planet, because of its heat may have chemical elements not even seen in our solar system. This planet too is on its way to its death.
Scientists are researching whether there was a fifth gas giant in our solar system in the past. Currently there are several inconsistencies and scientists for a long time have been unable to explain Earth's presence in the Goldilocks zone of the solar system. Now doctor David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute is trying to prove that there was a fifth gas giant in our solar system during its first 600 Million years.
In his tests Nesvorny performed many computer simulations that attempted to model the early solar system. He found that Jupiter jumped due to gravitational interactions with Uranus or Neptune but one of the planets was pushed out of the solar system. Something was clearly wrong.
When Nesvorny added another planet to the simulations similar in characteristics and size to Neptune or Uranus everything made sense again. The simulation then showed that this fifth gas giant was ejected from the solar system leaving the terrestrial planets untouched.
With the discovery of many free floating planets in interstellar space there are indications that the planet ejection process could actually be a common occurrence.
http://www.havisultan.com/index.php?...ence&Itemid=90
Gravity is a beautiful thing. It is the reason we stay rooted onto Earth and do not float away from it. It ensures everything instead of floating is drawn to the surface. Without gravity on Earth the water and the atmosphere of the planet would cease to exist. In short life as we know it cannot exist without gravity.
Perhaps we all know about the importance of gravity for life to survive on Earth. But how does gravity affect the relationship of planets with their host stars and their solar systems?
Going by its textbook definition gravity is the force that attracts a body towards another physical body having mass. This means anything with some amount of weight will attract smaller objects towards it.
However gravity effect's our solar system as well. Particularly Earth is affected from gravitational effects from the sun and the moon. Because of the moon's gravity the Earths oceans have waves and tides. Because of the sun's gravity the Earth orbits the sun and is not lost into space.
Planets can be eaten up by their stars
It seems that some planets can be pulled into their host star due to high gravitational pull from the star on the planet. This can occur if the planets gravity is weak and its host stars gravity is very strong. Of course the process takes place over Millions, perhaps Billions of years but eventually in the end the planet is pulled into the sun and destroyed. Scientists believe there is a reason planets are usually not found within a certain range-a certain distance from the sun. The reason is that planets too close to the sun can get eaten up by their host stars.In some cases there have been live examples of the process at work. Even now Exo-planets too close to the sun are slowly being eaten up by their stars.
A planet WASP-18b may still live for Millions of years but it is well on its way to becoming a dead planet. Its extreme proximity to the sun and its less than a day orbit are resulting in powerful plasma tides on the planet. Its temperature is about 3,800 degrees C due to its proximity to the sun. In size it is ten times bigger than Jupiter. In a few Million years its host star will draw the planet into itself. As a result the planet has been termed a suicidal planet.
Hubble Space Telescope has captured evidence too that a Sun-like star is about to "eat" another planet. WASP-12b is 1,500 degrees C and completes its orbit in 1.1 Earth days. The planet, because of its heat may have chemical elements not even seen in our solar system. This planet too is on its way to its death.
Planets can be expelled from their Solar System
In the same way that planets can be drawn into their host stars they be expelled from a solar system. This is not always due to gravitational effects only. Some scientists today are researching this line of thinking.Scientists are researching whether there was a fifth gas giant in our solar system in the past. Currently there are several inconsistencies and scientists for a long time have been unable to explain Earth's presence in the Goldilocks zone of the solar system. Now doctor David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute is trying to prove that there was a fifth gas giant in our solar system during its first 600 Million years.
In his tests Nesvorny performed many computer simulations that attempted to model the early solar system. He found that Jupiter jumped due to gravitational interactions with Uranus or Neptune but one of the planets was pushed out of the solar system. Something was clearly wrong.
When Nesvorny added another planet to the simulations similar in characteristics and size to Neptune or Uranus everything made sense again. The simulation then showed that this fifth gas giant was ejected from the solar system leaving the terrestrial planets untouched.
With the discovery of many free floating planets in interstellar space there are indications that the planet ejection process could actually be a common occurrence.
http://www.havisultan.com/index.php?...ence&Itemid=90