Astronomers may have found the answer to the mystery of the "great divide", that kept parts of the solar system apart when the sun formed. This "schism" or mystery has baffled astronomers and astrophysicists for a quite long time, is this the final answer to solve it. Without this barrier, life on earth may not have developed at all. No one knows how it came to be, a fluke or by a perfect cosmic chance which can either.
The solar system has two sides, and they are very different too. In one corner are the terrestrial planets like earth and the red planet "Mars". As distances get farther and a bit colder, they are called "Jovians" that includes Saturn and Jupiter, which are more gaseous. One feature is the great red spot of Jupiter, that is mostly high-pressure gases in its atmosphere.
One problem that Ramon Brasser, a researcher at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) in Tokyo IT cites is significant. By what mechanism did it make possible to keep elements from the inner and outer rim of the solar system, to remain heterogeneous and not homogenous. This was critical to the formation of jovian giants and smaller terrestrial planets, without it life on earth or if there was on mars, it would be different. His fellow scientist Stephen Mojzsis, a professor in CU Boulder's Department of Geological Sciences, is also trying to shed more insight into the proposition.
This proto-solar system is the same one, that is ours on the edge of the milky way galaxy. One theory holds that it was divided into two distinct regions, one with terran and Jovians that lay separated. What separated them was a ring, that our proto-sun had in its early formation. This disk was the game-changer for the evolution of celestial bodies and gave rise to carbon-based life-forms in tiny blue earth. Without this solar disk, chances of life on earth ever forming was nil. Probably the difference of what made up this halo of gas and dust is crucial for the great divide.
Remains of the great divide is a lot of nothingness, and far from how it looked millennia's ago. This area is the asteroid belt near Jupiter's space, though faint yet can detectable. Follow this line and stellar bodies will have traces of faint organic molecules, still there. Make a quick turnaround towards Jupiter, and there are traces of carbon found in materials in the outer solar system.
Discovery of this part of the great divide caused speculation that the Jovian giant is the main influence. Assuming the gravity of the big planet projected a gravitational counter that expelled, all substances from going into the inner rim and into the sun (solar system). It did not work because it did not exert enough gravitation to keep anything out. it needed a solution for the hypothesis to be explained the right way.
The solution came from observations in Chile using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), that showed evidence of halos that contained dust and gas around younger stars. This struck Brasser and Mojzsis, that might be similar to the great divide. This ring of gas and dust will separate materials that became the inner and outer planets. Distinct pressure and even difference in gravity are the elements that created the great divide. As a barrier, the great divide might have let some material in, and these alien materials might be the seed for life on earth.
Related Article: How the solar system got its 'Great Divide,' and why it matters for life on Earth
