Giant planet ‘destabilization’ may have coincided with the birth of Earth’s moon

Meteorite data may update the timing of a grand reshuffling of the giant planets

illustration of the solar system showing Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

Scientists think that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were born much closer to the sun while the solar system was still forming (illustrated) and that gravitational interactions among those planets knocked them into their current orbits.

NASA

A long-ago reshuffling of the giant planets in our solar system may have been instrumental in giving Earth its moon.