Galileo Probe Data Suggest Jupiter Formed Much Farther From Sun

Data collected during the Galileo probe’s suicide plunge into Jupiter in December 1995 suggest current theories about the gas giant’s origin may be wrong. Jupiter is believed to have formed from the solar nebula and from a collection of small bodies called icy planetissimals. But data reported in today’s Nature indicate that Jupiter contains two to three times as much of the heavy noble gases argon, krypton and xenon as would be expected if it had formed from the solar nebula. It also has about three times as much nitrogen as expected.

The new data suggest that Jupiter was actually formed much farther from the sun than its current location and has slowly moved sunward over the millenniums, said astronomer Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II