--- title: "Voracious Jupiter Ate a Bunch of Baby Planets, Scientists Say" description: "A new study suggests that Jupiter may be our solar system's hungriest hippo as it formed by eating a bunch of baby planets." date: "2022-06-18" modified: "2022-06-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/jupiter-ate-baby-planets" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "jupiter" - "NASA" - "planets" - "the digest" --- # Voracious Jupiter Ate a Bunch of Baby Planets, Scientists Say ![A new study suggests that Jupiter may be our solar system's hungriest hippo as it formed by eating a bunch of baby planets.]() *\Image: NASA/Futurism\* ## Me Hongy! Jupiter may be our solar system's hungriest hippo — as evidenced by new data from NASA's Juno probe that found the remains of a ton of smaller planets lurking beneath's the gas giant's opaque exterior. A new paper [published this month in the journal *Astronomy & Astrophysics*]() highlights findings from an international consortium of astronomers whose close study of the Juno data found that the gaseous mixture that makes up Jupiter is full of "heavy metal" elements, indicating that it devoured numerous "planetesimals," or baby planets, in the distant past. Based on this elemental breakdown, the scientists built computer models to recreate what Jupiter is like underneath all that gas. Per their models, they hypothesized that the planet's gassy mixture got that way by devouring and absorbing both helium and gas leftover from the birth of the Sun — as well, in a brutal detail, as various nascent planets that presumably used to be part of our star system. Jupiter was not only "one of the first planets to form in our solar system," but also "the most influential planet in the formation of the solar system," Yamila Miguel, a Dutch astrophysicist who led the research, [told *Live Science*](). ## Planetary Cannibalism Because its gravitational pull is so massive, it is believed that Jupiter helped shape the solar system into its current form — but until this study, astrophysicists disagreed about whether it formed from devouring other planets or from accumulating space debris. Based on the data compiled for the study, this team of researchers believes they may have finally unlocked the mystery of Jupiter's origins. Before 2016, when Juno first arrived at the Gas Giant, that was all but impossible. This research, as *Live Science* notes, may also help pave the way for similar theories about the formation of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. And just think — if all or some of our solar system's gassy planets got that way by eating other, smaller planets, how awe-strikingly terrifying would that be? **READ MORE:** [Scientists find remains of cannibalized baby planets in Jupiter's cloud-covered belly]() \[*Live Science*\] **More on Jupiter:** [*The James Webb Space Telescope Is Going to Stare Straight Into Jupiter*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()