Tag Archives: gas-giant planets

Mars is small because giant-planet orbital instabilities choked off its early growth

A University of Oklahoma astrophysics team explains why the growth of Mars was stunted by an orbital instability among the outer solar system’s giant planets in a new study on the evolution of the young solar system. The OU study … Continue reading

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Why is Mars so small?

Because it was starved during infancy, says Kevin Walsh (Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur and Southwest Research Institute, Boulder). In a paper in Nature, written with four colleagues and published June 5, 2011, he argues that when the planets were … Continue reading

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