why are the 4 inner planets in the solar system are so much smaller than the 4 outer planets?

Question

Sorry Pluto

In: Physics

Answer 1

People are saying that it is because the sun’s photonic energy pushed lighter elements farther away where they accumulated into the outer bands. But this is bull crap. There have been many many solar systems found that have huge gas giants closer to their sun. Therefore this theory is bogus.

I think the real answer is that it is just coincidental. What is clear is that some planets form earlier, larger, and faster than others and so they tend to suck up a lot of the material in the early solar system (jupiter, saturn).

And depending where they happen to form, their gravity intermingles with the gravity of the sun to stabilize/destabilize rest of the planets that might form. This is why the inner belt right next to jupiter (between mars/jupiter) is full of asteroids that never formed into a planet. Jupiter is destabilizing it.