The sun used to have rings like Saturn

A new study claims that the sun may have been surrounded by giant rings of dust similar to that of Saturn.
The rings of dust may have prevented Earth from becoming a "super-Earth", a planet that is 10 times the size of Earth and has a mass that is twice that of Earth. Super-Earths are planets that are around 30% of sun-like stars.
If super-Earths are common in other solar systems, why don't we have one in the solar system? Izidoro is an astronomer at Rice University. Izidoro and his colleagues created a computer simulation model of the formation of the solar system, which emerged from the ashes of a collapsed cloud of dust and gas, Live Science previously reported.

The Earth changes in the blink of an eye.

The simulations suggested that the infant sun would have been surrounded by high-pressure regions of gas and dust. When particles moved toward the sun under its strong pull, heated up and released large amounts of gas, these areas of high pressure were created.

There were likely three areas where solid particles were vaporized into gas. Solid silicate turned into gas in the line closest to the sun, while ice turned into gas in the middle line and carbon monoxide turned into a gas in the farthest line.

The simulations showed that dust rammed into the bumps and began to accumulate. The co-author of the paper said that the effect of the pressure bump is that it collects dust particles. The sun would have devoured the particles and left no seeds for the planets to grow if the pressure bumps hadn't existed. Isella said that one needs something to stop them in order to give them time to grow into planets.

An illustration of the proposed rings that may have influenced the architecture of our solar system. The image is courtesy of Rajdeep Dasgupta.

The gas and dust surrounding the sun cooled down and the lines closer to the sun were created. The process allowed the dust to accumulate into planetesimals, which could then be used to form planets. Izidoro said that their model shows pressure bumps can concentrate dust and act as planets.

Izidoro said in the statement that the pressure bumps regulated how much material was available to form planets in the inner solar system.

The planets of the inner solar system were formed by the nearest ring to the sun. The outer solar system would become the planets of the middle ring and the outer ring formed the comets, asteroids and other small bodies in the Kuiper Belt.
Super-Earths may have formed in the solar system if the researchers had simulation of the delayed formation of the middle ring. Izidoro said that a lot of mass had already invaded the inner system and was available to make super-Earths. The time when the middle pressure bumps formed might be a key part of the solar system.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Live Science published the original article.