The Earth and the Sun and all the other planets feel like familiar friends who've been around forever. Wind the clock back a few billion years though, and things were very different. The infant Sun was prone to highly energetic tantrums, the gas giants were acting like thugs and throwing their weight around, and the rocky planets were just trying to gather enough dust and ice in one place to actually stay in one piece. It's not clear at all how we got from such a chaotic, violent early solar system to the relatively tranquil place we call home today. Fortunately, Emily's here with the latest models and theories to clear it all up for us.
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Syzygy is produced by Dr Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.
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Things we talk about in this episode:
The early solar system: https://www.space.com/35526-solar-system-formation.html
Stellar nurseries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_formation
Pillars of creation: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-pillars-of-creation
The Snow Line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_line_(astrophysics)
Models of planet formation: http://cosmicdiary.org/geminiplanetimager/2015/09/16/what-do-we-know-about-planet-formation/
Where did Earth’s water come from? https://cosmosmagazine.com/geoscience/where-did-earth-get-its-water
Jupiter and Saturn migration: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/young-jupiter.html
Hot Jupiters: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/investigating-the-mystery-of-migrating-hot-jupiters