BBC today...

moon craters explained by dislodged outer system asteroids freed by two largest planets aligning causing non circular orbits of planets and shifting of all planets distance from the sun...

french computer simulation accounts for up to five unexplained solar system anomalies ...

thoughts gentlemen please.

 

Publication called "Nature" I think.

Now researchers show in computer simulations that a dramatic shock to the early solar system could reproduce the orbits – including the eccentricities and inclinations – of the giant planets.

 

In addition' date=' the shock provides an origin for Trojan asteroids, rocks that orbit the Sun in front of or behind Jupiter while gravitationally bound to that planet. The shock also explains a spike in the number lunar impacts – called the late heavy bombardment – which occurred nearly four billion years ago and is revealed in studies of craters on the Moon.[/quote']http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050525_planet_billiards.html

 

I think it sounds reasonable.

It is very interesting. I would want to read the full articles in Nature before reaching even a provisional conclusion.

The boundary conditions and assumptions that go into setting up the simulations can have a marked effect on the outcome. I should like to know what expectations the researchers had before they ran the simulations, and how many changes they made to their assumptions after the first run(s).

Also, as noted in the link provided by Spyman, "Douglas Lin of the University of California, Santa Cruz, worried that the inner solar system could be disrupted by the wildly eccentric movements of the giant planets."

What I am sure of is that this type of simulation, combined with the detailed observations of other planetary systems that will be available once Kepler is aloft and operational, will provide the means by which we come to understand the details of planetary formation.