A new study shows that most of the inner rocky planets in the solar system once orbited the sun in perfect alignment. (Image credit: SCIEPRO/Getty Images)
The solar system's four terrestrial planets, including Earth and a long-lost world, likely formed by orbiting the sun in a specific order, according to a new study. The findings also suggest that the planets formed earlier than previously thought.
Astronomers are increasingly interested in how planetary systems change their internal structure on a cosmic scale, fueled by several recent discoveries of exoplanet clusters, such as the family of seven planets orbiting the small star TRAPPIST-1.
Previous studies have shown that early in the evolution of planetary systems, pairs, triplets, or entire systems form that orbit their central star in a synchronous rhythm, called a resonance. The orbital periods of planets in resonance are integer ratios. For example, in the TRAPPIST-1 system, the closest planet, TRAPPIST-1 b, orbits its five closest neighbors eight times.
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