SPACE.COM - What would happen if we had an additional planet in our solar system? Not in the fringes like the hypothetical Planet Nine way beyond Pluto, but smack in the middle of Mars and Jupiter?
Such a world would wreak havoc on the orbits of most planets, according to new research that simulated a super-Earth — a term used for worlds that are more massive than Earth but lighter than gas giants — and recorded the fate of all eight planets. Results show that tiniest changes in the orbit of Jupiter, which is more massive than all other planets combined, has a profound and devastating effect on the delicately balanced orbits of other planets.
"It all works like intricate clock gears," Stephen Kane, an astronomer at the University of California in Riverside and the study's sole author, said in a statement(opens in new tab). "Throw more gears into the mix and it all breaks."