Scientists believe that if there were a super-Earth beyond Mars, our planet would face catastrophic consequences.

Scientists from the Florida Institute of Technology, USA, have developed a model of an alternative version of the Solar System, where a super-Earth exists beyond Mars. One of the most common types of planets in the Milky Way is those that are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. Super-Earths can be found throughout our galaxy, but such a planet does not exist in our Solar System. According to the researchers, this is actually quite fortunate, as otherwise, humans might not have existed on Earth, writes Space.

The scientists who created this alternative version of the Solar System aimed to understand how planets can influence each other's orbits. It turns out that if a large planet, slightly bigger than Earth, had been located in the inner Solar System, beyond Mars' orbit, it would have caused climatic chaos on Earth, Venus, and Mars.

According to the scientists, it is technically possible that a super-Earth could have appeared in the Solar System over 4.5 billion years ago, positioned between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This could have occurred if gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn had a smaller mass due to accumulating less gas and dust from the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young Sun.

Modeling showed that a super-Earth would have altered the orbits of Earth, Mars, and Venus with its gravity. Instead of circular orbits, the planets would have had more eccentric, meaning longer and narrower orbits. The orbits of these planets would never have been stable and would have constantly changed.

This would result in all three inner planets of the Solar System, including Earth, experiencing periods of extremely hot summers and extremely cold winters. Moreover, the unstable orbits of the planets would lead to frequent ice ages. Thus, even if life had emerged on Earth, it would have had to adapt to extreme conditions, and it is uncertain whether evolution would have led to the emergence of humans.

It is likely that life would not have arisen on Earth if there were a planet 10-20 times larger than our planet in mass and size located beyond Mars. This would be the worst-case scenario.

However, the existence of a super-Earth approximately twice the mass and size of our planet, while it would have resulted in an extreme climate on Earth, would still have made the planet habitable. Though it remains unknown what kind of life would have existed there.