Sun once had rings of dust around it which later produced planets, new study claims

A team of astronomers from Rice University in Houston, Texas have suggested that the sun once possessed a Saturn-like ring, made of dust and gas, around it before the formation of planets. In addition to this, the Sun's rings also prevented the Earth from growing bigger and transforming into a 'super Earth', the scientists noted in their study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Led by astronomer André Izidoro, the team of experts reportedly simulated the formation of the solar system billions of years ago using computer simulations. 

Planets' formation from Sun's rings, study claims

Lead study author Izidoro believes that there certainly was a considerable factor that prevented the Earth from becoming 'super', which is common in nearly 30% of star systems. Questioning the absence of any super-Earth in our solar system, Izidoro said as per Daily Mail-

We propose that pressure bumps produced disconnected reservoirs of disk material in the inner and outer solar system and regulated how much material was available to grow planets in the inner solar system.

According to the astronomers, they had observed pressure bumps and protoplanetary disc rings in our solar system using the Chile-based Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). "The effect of the pressure bump is that it collects dust particles, and that's why we see rings. These rings are regions where you have more dust particles than in the gaps between rings", Izidoro explained.

In the simulated model created by the scientists, they created rings around the sun and assumed that there were three bands of high pressure in the early solar system. Their models revealed that the nearest and first ring around the sun was made by the accumulation of sand, glass, and silicon dioxide, in the region where now resides Mercury, Venus and Earth. According to the study, these gas and dust particles were further pulled together by the force of gravity resulting in the formation of planets.

"We simulate planet formation starting with grains of dust and covering many different stages, from small millimeter-sized grains to planetesimals and then planets", Izidoro said. 

The scientists further revealed that there is a difference in the chemistry between the inner and the outer solar system which resulted from the delayed appearance of the sun's middle ring, as per their model. 

(Image: NASA)