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Asteroids

When planets migrate

Nature volume 457, pages 1091–1092 (2009)Cite this article

A study of the main asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, reveals an excess depletion of asteroids that was triggered by the migration of giant planets in the early history of the Solar System.

When astronomers study the asteroids confined to the main asteroid belt, they find that not only do these objects come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but also that their orbits can tell a tale about the evolution of the Solar System since the time planets formed. Although asteroids pale in size in comparison to planets, they share similar humble beginnings: in clouds of gas and dust circling the young Sun, grains of dust started sticking together, and soon there were boulders and then mountains of rock headed towards planethood. The newly formed planets were gravitationally dominant over asteroids, but their orbits were not necessarily stationary. On page 1109 of this issue, Minton and Malhotra1 take a close look at the main asteroid belt and show how the migration about 4 billion years ago of giant planets to the positions we see them in today affected asteroids' orbits.

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Figure 1: Kirkwood gaps.
Figure 2: The Moon's basins.

NASA

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  1. Kevin J. Walsh is at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Laboratoire Cassiopée, BP 4229, 06304 Nice, France. kwalsh@oca.eu ,

    Kevin J. Walsh

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  1. Kevin J. Walsh
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Walsh, K. When planets migrate. Nature 457, 1091–1092 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/4571091a

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