An international team of scientists has discovered that Jupiter is the oldest planet in the solar system. This was announced in a press release posted on Phys.org.
Astronomers analyzed the content of isotopes of tungsten and molybdenum in iron meteorites, which made it possible to determine the place of formation of the latter. It turned out that each studied space object formed in one of two different regions of the nebula, from which the solar system then arose. These regions remained isolated for 2-3 million years. The reason for this is the "gap" between them, which appeared as a result of the fact that Jupiter pulled material from the protoplanetary disk onto itself.
The giant planet's solid core is estimated to have formed one million years after the solar system began to form. It prevented the movement of matter inside the gas and dust disk, which prevented the emergence of planets of a class like Super-Earth. It took 3-4 million years to gain mass equal to the total mass of 70 Earth planets. Later, the core began to attract matter, which served as the gas shell of Jupiter.
Astronomers estimate that the solar system appeared about 4.5 billion years ago. The planets were formed by the rotation of the protoplanetary disk that surrounded the sun.