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Looking at Sol, we can see that earth-like planets are close to the sun, while Gas Giants are at medium distance with Ice Giants being far out.

Im wondering if this make-up is actually the norm or if it possible (and not highly unlikely) that terran-like planets could be at medium distance, while gas and ice giants could be Close up or very far out.

I suppose it depends on the size and power of the star, so Ice Giants (or planets) are probably always more far out than gas giants or earth-like planets ? However, for true gas giants, could they be closer to the star ?

i.e. would it be possible for a configuration that goes like Star - Jupiter alike - Saturn alike - Mercury alike - venus alike - ice giants ?

thanks !

user431806
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  • I see they don't allow questions related to Planet X also referred to as Nibiru or Destroyer as one very popular question was "Closed". I'll just have to assume the reason is that subject is taboo. There is a large community of people pushing this idea and pictures showing planetary objects very close to sun (many) - I've taken pictures myself and verified so something is up. Wondering if your question is a round-about way of asking this. If so, thanks – Rich Bianco Jun 08 '17 at 20:58

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Not exactly. It's possible for that configuration to happen if the orbits of planets shift substantially after planetary formation, which seems to happen often. There have been so many Hot Jupiters found that scientists have started to believe that our solar system has the gas giants farther away from the star than the norm, see this article on planetary migration for details.

Substantial planetary migration can happen over time due to interactions which astrophysicists are still working to understand, so it is possible that you could have your gas giants furthest in. As for the smaller planets, if they got thrown into distant orbits they could achieve stability, however I don't see how smaller planets could have a long term stable orbit if they were close to the gas giants, they'd likely become moons at some point.

So your order could happen, and it probably has more than once in a near infinite universe, but the smaller planets would not last in close orbits.

GdD
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Generally, no. When a star ignites, its solar wind starts pushing the matter in the protoplanetary disk outward. Lighter particles are easier to move, so they move farther out. So you get heavy elements near the star, light elements further away.
Collisions and gravitational disturbances mix them up a little so you can get gas giants with rocky moons.

Hobbes
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