Is there a reason the Gas Giants are further away from the sun that most terrestrial planets or is it a coincidence?

Question

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

Answer 1

Heat. At distances relatively close to the sun, gases expand too much to “group up” enough to create the gravitational forces to form a planet. Heat makes things expand. Solids like metals and rocks can remain solid at higher temperatures, so the gases closer to the sun were too heated to condense into gas giant planets. But rocks could.

Further away from the sun is colder, so gases are denser.