Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, wasn't always this big. In fact, there was a time when it was even bigger. According to a recent study, Jupiter was once more than double its current size, about 2,5 times its current volume. It is a mind-blowing revelation, considering it already has a mass 2.5 times greater than the rest of the planets combined.
In the initial years, Jupiter's immense gravity is what shaped the other planets around it. Astronomers Konstantin Batygin from Caltech and Fred Adams of the University of Michigan studied the planet's two moons and discovered that 3.8 million years after the dust coalesced into the first solid materials in the Solar System, Jupiter was 2 to 2.5 times its current size. Their findings have been published in Nature Astronomy.
Jupiter is what shaped the rest of the planets
The researchers believe the discovery will help answer the eternal question of how we came into being. "This brings us closer to understanding how not only Jupiter but the entire Solar System took shape," Batygin said.
They state that the initial mass of Jupiter supports the bottom-up method of planet formation. This method states that some planets formed gradually after dust and rocks slowly came together to build a complete planet. The study authors think Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, all formed from the bottom up. This is why Earth, and likely other planets, have a core and different layers.
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Jupiter also holds the answer to the creation of all the other planets in the solar system. A gas giant like Jupiter was formed through the same process, and upon reaching a certain stage, where its mass was around 10 times that of Earth, it started accumulating gas as well because of its gravity. This couldn't have happened in the solar system because of a lack of enough material so close to the Sun.
Jovian moons Amalthea and Thebe
The two scientists studied the orbital motions of Jovian moons Amalthea and Thebe, which orbit close to the planet. Their orbits are tilted with respect to Jupiter's equator. Using this tilt, as proven by previous studies, they back-traced the orbital history of the tiny moons, and used it to reconstruct the early evolution of Jupiter.
"It's astonishing that even after 4.5 billion years," Adams says, "enough clues remain to let us reconstruct Jupiter's physical state at the dawn of its existence."
They found that Jupiter witnessed a period of rapid, intense growth when the Solar System was merely an infant and 3.8 million years after the first solids formed, Jupiter was twice its current volume. At this stage, its magnetic field was 50 times higher than today.
