Is there a reason the Gas Giants are further away from the sun that most terrestrial planets or is it a coincidence?
In: Planetary Science
Not a coincidence! The sun generates something called the solar wind which is a stream of charged particles. This solar wind can be relatively forceful (but we can’t feel it at all) when interacting with very small and light things like gas molecules.
The early solar system was a lumpy disk of gases with a gravitational center that would eventually grow large and dense enough to self-ignite. Once that occurred, the solar wind began pushing the lightest elements of the gas cloud such as hydrogen and helium outward. Heavier elements like carbon, silicon and iron remained behind and aggregated into the rocky inner planets.
The mass of gases pushed outward by the solar wind eventually slowed as the force of wind dissipated and enabled the formation the gas giants. Compositionally, Jupiter is quite similar to the sun with predominance of hydrogen and helium – it’s just too small to become a star on its own.
Hope this helps!
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