The team proposed that a single encounter with an object between two and fifty times the mass of Jupiter could explain the observed eccentricities and tilts of the Solar System’s giant planets.

Stock illustration of all the solar system's planets. Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will be visible all at once this month. Stock illustration of all the solar system's planets.

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs. Jupiter has long been credited with protecting the inner solar system from pesky ...

An object eight times the mass of Jupiter may have swooped around the sun, coming superclose to Mars' present-day orbit ...

The craft is outfitted with large solar arrays that will serve as the primary power source for the mission. The arrays are large, as the Jupiter system is more than five times as far from the sun ...

An object eight times the mass of Jupiter may have swooped around the sun, coming superclose to Mars' present-day orbit before shoving four of the solar system's planets onto a different course.