COULD JUPITER OR SATURN HAVE EJECTED A FIFTH GIANT PLANET?

Models of the dynamical evolution of the early solar system that follow the dispersal of the gaseous protoplanetary disk have been widely successful in reconstructing the current orbital configuration of the giant planets. Statistically, some of the most successful dynamical evolution simulations have initially included a hypothetical fifth giant planet, of ice giant (IG) mass, which gets ejected by a gas giant during the early solar system’s …