A new study sheds new light on the creation of the vast world we call the Universe.

In the initial period of its creation, the Solar System underwent a major upheaval: The gravitational pulls between the giant planets were out of balance, causing them to drift out of orbit. This caused a change in the orbit of Jupiter, which moved very close to the Sun, while Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were flung outwards.

The instability of the giant planets

The gravity of the giant planets sent Pluto and other icy bodies into the Kuiper belt, drove the asteroid belt to its current location and sent countless bodies crashing into the interior of the Solar System. In other words, the research describes how the present “picture” of our solar system came to be, reminding us that the forces “out there” are far beyond human control.

For many years, researchers believed that this “giant planetary instability” occurred 600 million years after the birth of the Solar System 4.57 billion years ago, based on the ages of impact craters mapped on the Moon. Recently, there were indications that it happened much earlier. Now, some researchers come up with a more accurate date of just 60 million years after formation of the Solar System, based on an analysis of rare meteorites originating from an ancient family of asteroids, published today in Science.

The icy dwarf planet Haumea

Other recent work seems to confirm the date: the impact history recorded in common meteorites, the formation history of the icy dwarf planet Haumea, and the first known mineral crystals found in lunar rocks recovered by the Apollo astronauts. “When you put it all together, there’s a lot of evidence that points to about 60 million years,” says Steven Desch, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University.

The 60 million years is bolstered by a study published last year in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, which looked at the cooling histories of L chondrites, of one of the most common meteorites. They also show a clear peak in the conflicts that occurred about 60 million years agosays Marco Delbo, also a planetary scientist on the Côte d’Azur. “Something happened, either one impact or a series of impacts, in that time frame,” he said.