Voracious Jupiter Ate a Bunch of Baby Planets, Scientists Say

The remains of a ton of smaller planets were found beneath the gas giant's opaque exterior.

A new paper published this month in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics highlights findings from an international group of scientists who found that Jupiter is full of heavy metal elements and devoured baby planets.

Scientists built computer models to recreate what Jupiter would look like under all that gas. They theorize that the planet's gassy mixture got that way by eating and absorbing the leftover gas from the birth of the Sun, as well as other planets that used to be part of our star system.

One of the first planets to form in our solar system was Jupiter, and it was the most influential planet in the formation of the solar system, according to a Dutch astronomer.

Planetary Cannibalism

It is thought that Jupiter helped shape the solar system into its current form, but until this study, astrophysicists disagreed about whether it formed from other planets or space debris.

The data compiled for the study may have unlocked the mystery of Jupiter's origins. It was all but impossible before the Gas Giant's arrival.

According to Live Science, this research may help pave the way for similar theories about the formation of the planets.

If our solar system's gassy planets were to eat other, smaller planets, how terrifying would that be?

Scientists have found the remains of baby planets in Jupiter.