
The Giant Planets in the Solar System Stunted the Growth of Mars - rbanffy
https://www.universetoday.com/139194/the-giant-planets-in-the-solar-system-stunted-the-growth-of-mars/
======
orthecreedence
If Mars had simply pulled itself up by its boostraps instead of wallowing in
self-pity, it too could have been a giant. Especially as close to the asteroid
belt as it is, there's really no excuse. Planets need to start taking
responsibility for their failures instead of looking for handouts.

~~~
NetOpWibby
Make Solar System Great Again!

------
rusk
There's a theory I heard somewhere, that the giant planets also played a vital
role in the development of life on earth. Basically their gigantic gravity
well acts like cosmic hoover sucking in all the flotsam and jetsam that's
constantly flying here and there. Where it not for this Earth would otherwise
be continuously bombarded with all these as meteors making the development of
life impossible.

~~~
charliedevolve
I suppose that means that in our search for potentially life-supporting
exoplanets, we ought to place a higher priority on systems with large outer
planets.

~~~
maxxxxx
I don't know. I think we should gather as much data as possible without
looking for conditions similar to earth. We have no idea how life can develop.

~~~
rusk
have you ever spent a lot of time sifting through any non-trivially large set
of data looking for a pattern. Sometimes you need precepts to help you narrow
your scope of attention. Like, when you go to find the proverbial needle in a
haystack, the surest way of finding the needle is to take a "bottom up"
approach and sift the entire haystack. Or, you could use your knowledge of
where you last saw the needle and do a rough search there. Or in the hope that
the needle is the right kind of metal you might try using a magnet. Each of
these might prove fruitless if your assumptions don't hold but they have a
high probability vs their cost.

------
akshayB
There are multiple theories on how planets could have been migrated in/out or
they came into existence in our solar system. But the problem is this cannot
be reverse engineered and verified because early on when solar system was
getting formed even small disturbances, interactions or flyby of foreign
planets or objects could have altered by course of history without leaving any
trace.

