Which is the youngest planet in our Solar System?

Question

Which is the youngest planet in our Solar System?

Answer 1

earth is the youngest planet, there are a few theories as to how, but you didnt ask that. so yeah, earth is the youngest

Answer 2

lets see.

Chronos was Saturn, so he is SO out of the running for youngest.

Mars was a war God and everyone knows that War is for the very old... because they don't fight them.

You might choose Venus, but if you look close, especially around the eyes, she has had work done, I KNOW it.

The Earth is our Mother, forever beautiful, but she is a mom with a LOT of kids, and that takes time.

Mercury... Hermes... Quicksilver... God of Medicine and FTD Happy-Go-Lucky Bouquets... a doctor... (I wonder if he is Jewish and available?)  A definite contender, but Med school takes a long time.

Jupiter, the Capo di Tutti Capi, Old Mr One-Eye, the Dude has a thing for Swans,  I think we can eliminate him, just on principles.

What's left?  Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, if you like.

Neptune, the God of Oceans and the Magician.  Think Gandalf in a wetsuit.  Somehow I don't think young.

Uranus, father of them all.  Yeah, right.  If a planet could have a beard, this guy's would dragging to L3.

Pluto, God of the Underworld and Mickey Mouse's dog.  By far the best preserved, as it is frozen solid, but I suspect that its billions of years age is in Dog Years.

My vote is Mercury.

Answer 3

Try "The Recent Organization of the Solar System" by Donald Patten and Samuel Windsor.

You'll find some sophisticated physical concepts that illuminate that very question.

Answer 4

Youngest planet in new solar system discovered

London | Saturday, Jan 5 2008 IST

Answer 5

probably Neptune because it is the furthest planet from the sun, meaning that it formed last due to the residue of the sun forming into planets faster by them being closer to the sun meaning a shorter orbit resulting in them absorbing more residue that circled around the sun as a protoplanetary disk. Mercury probably formed first because of this, it was nearer the sun so it moved faster in its orbit meaning it could absorb debris from the protoplanetary disk faster. Neptune was last beacuse it is the last ''true'' planet meaning that it absorbed debris from the protoplanetary disk more slowly due to its long orbit period. it is also the smallest of all the gas giants in the solar system which also backs up the theory.

Answer 6

Define youngest!

The most recently found planet would be Neptune - (remember Pluto is longer considered a planet).

Also - in nebula theory - although all the planets form around the same time, the dynamics and reactions in the outer solar system are slower - and is the porcess of clearing debris - so that would mean the Neptune should be the last to finish forming.

So if I had to choose - I'd go for Neptune - but really all the planets are more or less the same age.

However, as has already been stated - Earth has the youngest surface, because it continually reprocesses it.

Answer 7

Earth.

Answer 8

The inner planets Mercury, Venus, Earth Mars. Imagine the proto solar system as a giiant centrifuge. The gas giants jupiter, saturn, uranus and neptune would have coalesced first. Their particles being the most abundant and in closest proximity and the criterion for coalescence being that rel vel particles < grav escape vel in micro grav. The Earthlike planets (rocky,metallic ) being further in to the sun would be rotating more rapidly and the accretion probability would be smaller as the criterion for coalesence is rel orbital speed<escape vel under microgravity.

Answer 9

Interesting question. The term 'youngest' is a relative term. Once the Sun ignited, the solar wind began to blow dust and gas out of the solar system. Without this dust and gas, the planets would loose all the extra material they needed to grow. It is believed this occurred rather quickly (less than a million years, a blink of the eye in cosmic time scales).

Our current theories of solar evolution would indicate that the planets all formed from the solar nebula about the same time, a little more than 4.5 billion years ago. However the discovery of Hot Jupiters orbiting close to their parent stars bring this model into serious question.

There are many unknowns in solar system/planet building. Logic would dictate that the larger the planet, the longer it took to form. The outer gas giant planets would take much more time to grow to their current size that the small rocky planets like the Earth. Therefore, Jupiter would be the 'youngest' planet in the solar system.

However, the planets are also changing overtime. They cool off, they heat up, their atmospheres change, they run into other objects, their orbits wobble over time etc. In order to truly say how old a planet is one must arrive at a definition dividing a ball of rock or gas in the early solar system and a  planet. We all know about the controversy the IAU stirred up two years ago when they tried to define a 'planet'. Good luck, but I doubt you will receive a wholly satisfactory answer to this question.

Answer 10

The planet Zorg, it was created 60 years ago and all politicians come form there :)

Answer 11

All planets formed about the same time, but the one with the youngest surface is Earth since wind, water, etc continually reshape its surface.

The youngest surface overall is probably Io's since it has volcanic activity nearly all the time, but it's not a planet.