Editor's Summary
26 May 2005
Solar System giants
A collection of three papers in this issue, tackling seemingly unrelated planetary phenomena, marks a notable unification of Solar System dynamics. The three problems covered are the hard-to-explain orbits of giant planets, the evolution of the orbits of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, and the cause of the 'Late Heavy Bombardment' that peppered the Moon with meteors, comets and asteroids some 700 million years after the planets were formed. Key to all these events, on this new model, was a rapid migration of the giant planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus) after a long period of stability within the Solar System.
News and Views: Planetary science: When giants roamed
An early epoch of planetary migration could explain the current orbits of the giant planets, the origin of Jupiter's Trojans, and an intense bombardment of the early Solar System with a shower of asteroids and comets.
Joe Hahn
doi: 10.1038/435432a
Letter: Origin of the orbital architecture of the giant planets of the Solar System
K. Tsiganis, R. Gomes, A. Morbidelli and H. F. Levison
doi: 10.1038/nature03539
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (329K) | Supplementary information
Letter: Chaotic capture of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids in the early Solar System
A. Morbidelli, H. F. Levison, K. Tsiganis and R. Gomes
doi: 10.1038/nature03540
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (187K)
Letter: Origin of the cataclysmic Late Heavy Bombardment period of the terrestrial planets
R. Gomes, H. F. Levison, K. Tsiganis and A. Morbidelli
doi: 10.1038/nature03676