{"id":44484,"date":"2023-05-07T07:35:50","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T07:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=118457"},"modified":"2023-05-07T09:32:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T09:32:44","slug":"what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"What would happen to our Solar System if Earth were replaced by a super Earth?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"> Computer simulations reveal what would happen to our Solar System if Earth were much bigger and orbited further from the Sun. <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Lewis Dartnell\n                \t\t<\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Sunday, 07 May 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body> <p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s1&quot;\">T<\/span>he more we\u2019ve learned about the planetary systems orbiting other stars in the galaxy, the more we\u2019ve realised just how unusual our own Solar System is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\">Most <a href=\"&quot;https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/exoplanets\/&quot;\">exoplanetary<\/a> systems have very different architectures to our own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\">The Kepler-11 system, for example, is exceedingly compact, with six planets crammed within the equivalent orbit of <a href=\"&quot;https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/astrophotography\/planets\/venus\/&quot;\">Venus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul><li><em><strong>What if our Solar System contained a <a href=\"&quot;https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/hot-jupiter\/&quot;\">hot Jupiter<\/a>?<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul><div class=\"&quot;image-handler__container\" image-handler__container--full=\"\" style=\"&quot;padding-bottom:\" calc=\"\"> <picture><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=300%2C225,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?quality=90&amp;resize=300%2C225,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/png&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=355%2C266,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?quality=90&amp;resize=355%2C266,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/png&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=405%2C304,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?quality=90&amp;resize=405%2C304,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/png&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=554%2C416,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?quality=90&amp;resize=554%2C416,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/png&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C465&quot;\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C465&quot;\" type=\"&quot;image\/png&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=408%2C306,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?quality=90&amp;resize=408%2C306,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/png&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=556%2C417,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?quality=90&amp;resize=556%2C417,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/png&quot;\"><img class=\"&quot;wp-image-118460\" align=\"\" size-full=\"\" image-handler__image=\"\" image-handler__image--full=\"\" no-wrap=\"\" js-lazyload=\"\" data-src=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/05\/Kepler-11-d7be95b-e1683204479112.png?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C465&quot;\" width=\"&quot;1200&quot;\" height=\"&quot;900&quot;\" alt=\"&quot;&quot;\" title=\"&quot;&quot;\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div><div class=\"&quot;caption-hold&quot;\"><figcaption class=\"&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;caption-copy&quot;\"><i class=\"&quot;icon-arrow\" icon-camera-circle=\"\"\/> Artist\u2019s impression of the Kepler-11 system. Credit: NASA \/ Tim Pyle<\/span><\/figcaption><span class=\"&quot;im-image-caption&quot;\"\/><\/div>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\">Other systems contain worlds with extremely elliptical orbits \u2013 such as HD 20782 b \u2013 which indicate significant past effects of gravitational interactions between planets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\">And one of the most common kinds of exoplanets to turn up in our astronomical searches is not present at all in the Solar System: super-Earths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\">Super-Earth planets have a mass several times larger than Earth\u2019s but substantially less than ice giants like <a href=\"&quot;https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/guide-ice-giants-uranus-neptune\/&quot;\">Uranus and Neptune<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">Stephen Kane, in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the <a href=\"\/\/www.ucr.edu\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener&quot; noopener noreferrer\">University of California, Riverside<\/a>, was curious to see how differently our Solar System might have turned out were it to have formed with a super-Earth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">He created a series of computer models of the Solar System in its current configuration, and into each dropped a different super-Earth between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter to see what would happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">The hypothetical super-Earths were varied in mass between one and 10 times that of Earth, and with initial orbital distances of between 2 AU and 4 AU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">Overall, he simulated thousands of these tweaked Solar Systems, and let each run within the computer for the equivalent of 10 million years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"&quot;image-handler__container\" image-handler__container--full=\"\" style=\"&quot;padding-bottom:\" calc=\"\"> <picture><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=300%2C180,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=300%2C180,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=355%2C213,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=355%2C213,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=405%2C243,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=405%2C243,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=554%2C332,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=554%2C332,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C372&quot;\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C372&quot;\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=408%2C245,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=408%2C245,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=556%2C334,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=556%2C334,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><img class=\"&quot;wp-image-40456\" align=\"\" size-full=\"\" image-handler__image=\"\" image-handler__image--full=\"\" no-wrap=\"\" js-lazyload=\"\" data-src=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/09\/super_Earth-c86fdf2-e1606304499833.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C372&quot;\" width=\"&quot;1200&quot;\" height=\"&quot;720&quot;\" alt=\"&quot;&quot;\" title=\"&quot;&quot;\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div><div class=\"&quot;caption-hold&quot;\"><figcaption class=\"&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;caption-copy&quot;\"><i class=\"&quot;icon-arrow\" icon-camera-circle=\"\"\/> An artist\u2019s concept showing how exoplanet 55 Cancri e compares with Earth. 55 Cancri e has a mass 7.8 times and a radius just over twice that of our own planet, making it a \u2018super Earth\u2019. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/R. Hurt (SSC)<\/span><\/figcaption><span class=\"&quot;im-image-caption&quot;\"\/><\/div>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s2&quot;\">Kane found that the inner, rocky planets were particularly vulnerable to gravitational disruption from a super-Earth companion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s2&quot;\">For example, with a seven-Earth-mass super-Earth inserted at 2 AU, the orbits of the terrestrial planets quickly become unstable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s2&quot;\">At 2 AU, the added super-Earth and Mars experience a 2:3 resonance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s2&quot;\">This means that for every two of the super-Earth\u2019s orbits Mars completes exactly three of its own, and so receives a regular gravitational tug.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s2&quot;\">Mars\u2019s orbit becomes ever more elliptical as the planet picks up momentum and is rapidly ejected altogether from the Solar System.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s2&quot;\">The increasingly unstable orbit of Mars affects both Venus and Earth, which in turn leads to the ejection of Mercury.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s2&quot;\">And as Venus wanders further out from the Sun, and Earth is nudged inwards, the two experience catastrophic close encounters with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"&quot;image-handler__container\" image-handler__container--full=\"\" style=\"&quot;padding-bottom:\" calc=\"\"> <picture><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=300%2C200,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=300%2C200,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=355%2C237,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=355%2C237,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=405%2C270,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=405%2C270,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=554%2C369,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(max-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=554%2C369,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C413&quot;\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C413&quot;\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=408%2C272,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=408%2C272,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?webp=true&amp;quality=90&amp;resize=556%2C371,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/webp&quot;\"><source media=\"&quot;(min-width:\" data-srcset=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=556%2C371,\" https:=\"\" type=\"&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;\"><img class=\"&quot;wp-image-117116\" align=\"\" size-full=\"\" image-handler__image=\"\" image-handler__image--full=\"\" no-wrap=\"\" js-lazyload=\"\" data-src=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2023\/03\/solar-system-planets-3265c46.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C413&quot;\" width=\"&quot;1200&quot;\" height=\"&quot;800&quot;\" alt=\"&quot;&quot;\" title=\"&quot;&quot;\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div><div class=\"&quot;caption-hold&quot;\"><figcaption class=\"&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;caption-copy&quot;\"><i class=\"&quot;icon-arrow\" icon-camera-circle=\"\"\/> Illustration of the planets of the Solar System. Credit: Steve Allen \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><span class=\"&quot;im-image-caption&quot;\"\/><\/div>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">If, instead, the seven-Earth-mass super-Earth is placed at 3.8 AU, it experiences orbital resonances with both Jupiter and Saturn, nudging them both into slightly more elliptical orbits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">In this case, the super-Earth is itself thrown out of the Solar System, but not before it has shattered the stability of the inner system and triggered a chaotic orbit in Neptune that leads to Uranus being ejected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">Overall, Kane found that the Solar System is largely preserved if a super-Earth were to exist in a narrow range of orbits around 3 AU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">But for most of the cases he studied, a super-Earth orbiting between Mars and Jupiter falls into resonance with one or more other planets and acts like a wrecking ball to the stability of the Solar System.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">I loved this paper from a gleeful perspective of building toy Solar Systems and watching how catastrophically they break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p3&quot;\">But there\u2019s a deep relevance to this sort of study too, serving both to improve our understanding of the architectures of exoplanetary systems, and to constrain our theories on how they form.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\"><strong><em>Lewis Dartnell was reading <\/em>The Dynamical Consequences of a Super-Earth in the Solar System<em> by Stephen R Kane.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\"><strong><em>Read it online at: <a href=\"\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2302.06641&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener&quot; noopener noreferrer\">arxiv.org\/abs\/2302.06641<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>This article originally appeared in the June 2023 issue of <\/strong><\/em><strong>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong><em><strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Computer simulations reveal what would happen to our Solar System if Earth were much bigger and orbited further from the Sun. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":44485,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth-scaled.jpg",2560,1440,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth-1024x576.jpg",800,450,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth-1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/what-would-happen-to-our-solar-system-if-earth-were-replaced-by-a-super-earth-2048x1152.jpg",2048,1152,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Computer simulations reveal what would happen to our Solar System if Earth were much bigger and orbited further from the Sun.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/44484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}