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Planetary Migration

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Even today, scientists understand very little about the formation of Uranus and Neptune. This made scientists have stated that, "...the possibilities concerning the formation of Uranus and Neptune are almost endless." However, it has been suggested that this planetary system evolved in a very non-conventional manner, as described in the following lines. Planetesimals at the disk's inner edge occasionally passed through gravitational encounters with the outermost giant planet, which calter the planetesimals' orbits. The planets scattered inwards the most of the small icy bodies that they encountered, exchanging angular momentum with the scattered objects so that the planets move outwards in response, preserving the angular momentum of the system. …show more content…

After several hundreds of millions of years of slow, gradual migration, Jupiter and Saturn, the two inmost giant planets, crossed their mutual 1:2 mean-motion resonance of orbital motion. This resonance increased their orbital eccentricities to such an extent, that it destabilized the entire planetary system. The arrangement of the giant planets altered quickly and very radically. Jupiter shifted Saturn out towards its present position, and this relocation caused mutual gravitational encounters between Saturn and the two ice giants, which subsequently propelled the planets Neptune and Uranus onto much more eccentric orbits. These ice giants then ploughed into the planetesimal disk, scattering tens of thousands of planetesimals from their formerly stable orbits in the outer Solar System. This disruption almost entirely scatters the primordial disk, removing almost 99% of its mass, a scenario which explains the modern-day absence of a dense trans-Neptunian population. Some of the planetesimals were thrown into the inner Solar System, producing a sudden influx of impacts on the terrestrial planets: yes! It is the Late Heavy

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