Jupiter: The first born

By: Alonso Enrique R. Africa

Image courtesy of Time Magazine

A group of scientists found that Jupiter is the oldest planet in our solar system forming 1 million and 3-4 million years after the solar system was formed. In comparison, this is much older than our earth that formed 70-110 million years after. 

Who knew that this enormous planet is not only the largest of the planetoids but the oldest as well. It is suspected that Jupiter gained its size due to its history, when the solar system consisted mostly dust. It may have garnered large amounts of the dust even before the formation of other terrestrial planets such as Earth, Venus, etc., leading to its growth. There are multiple theories that may explain how Jupiter came to be but none of them yet is approved. Knowing the age of this gas giant is immensely important to understanding of how the solar system evolved through time. This is because the planet affects the solar systems accretion disks. With a foundation of its age, we can at least make a timeline of what happened in the solar system, what made what, how, and why.

There had also been a separation of dust about 4 million years after the solar systems birth. That separation stayed constant and efficient. There is a  gap between the plane of gas and dust.  Jupiter may be the cause of this, suggesting an estimate of its age.

Scientists infer that isotopes of meteorites formed by Jupiter’s core show that it was formed 1 million years after the solar systems birth. this information is taken from a study gathering tungsten and molybdenum isotope signatures on iron meteorites. They don't have samples from the planet itself, but they get this information from meteorites that were taken from asteroids.