Mar 20 2009
Asteroid belt mystery solved
Mysterious gaps in the asteroid belt may have been caused by a shift in the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn four billion years ago, researchers say.
A computer simulation of the gravitational influence of these migrating planets matches previously unexplained gaps in the belt, according to a report published in the British journal Nature today.
“The pattern in the missing asteroids confirms other lines of evidence that the giant planets went through a brief episode of migration some time in the Solar System’s early history,” said David Minton study co-author and astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA.
Source: Cosmos Online – click here for full article
