[Regnum] The Solar System may have once contained five giant planets, one of which was "ejected." This was stated on September 8 by Vladislava Ananyeva, a researcher at the Department of Planetary Physics at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a PhD candidate in physics and mathematics.
Astronomer Ananeva: The Solar System may have once had five giant planets
"When a planetary system disperses over several million years, the planets begin to interact with each other. They can get too close, distorting each other's orbits, and one planet can move into a highly eccentric orbit or even fly away. <…> There is a hypothesis that the Solar System once had five giant planets, and one of them was ejected," she noted in an interview with TASS.
Was that Theia?
Ananyeva also clarified that the largest planets are hot Saturns or hot Jupiters. According to her, these are lightweight gas giants that orbit close to their star, are extremely hot, have "fluffy" and "loose" atmospheres, and have very low average densities.
In April 2025, scientists discovered possible signs of biological activity beyond the solar system. In the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b, specialists found chemical traces of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, which are produced by living organisms on Earth.