Jupiter is already the biggest planet by far in our solar system, but new research suggests it was somehow once even larger than it is now. Twice as large, in fact. To put that into context, those ...

As the most massive planet in the Solar System, and first to form, Jupiter’s gravity shaped the formation of everything else. To better understand how the newborn giant threw its weight around, ...

Illustration comparing the planets of the Solar System and the Sun on the same scale. The planets are shown to scale relative to each other but their distances are not. From left to right the bodies ...

Simulations reveal that Jupiter’s rapid growth disrupted the early solar system, creating rings where new planetesimals formed much later than expected. These late-forming bodies match the ages and ...

The shocking findings were part of a recent study in which astronomers effectively peered back in time to discover what Jupiter was like in its early years. Jupiter is not only the largest in the ...