A 10-times-mass planet may have collided with Jupiter, the largest of the solar system, shortly after its completion, in a terrible collision that appears to have lasting effects on Jupiter's heart, researchers said yesterday.

The violent collision, which scientists assume will explain information gathered by NASA's Juno spacecraft, may have occurred millions of years after the birth of the sun about 4.5 billion years ago.

"We think that collisions, especially massive ones, may have been common during the formation of the solar system," said astronomer Andrea Isilla at Rice University in Houston. For example, we believe that our moon formed after a similar event, but the collision we are supposed to have with Jupiter was enormous. ” According to this scenario, the planet, which was in the process of formation and collided with Jupiter, was immersed in the depths of the huge planet it had swallowed. Jupiter, a massive gaseous planet covered by dense red, brown, yellow and white clouds, reaches 143,000 kilometers in diameter. "Juno measures Jupiter's gravitational field with exceptional precision," said co-professor of astronomy at Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, China, and head of the research team published in the journal Nature. "Scientists use this information to determine the material and structure of the planet." ».