Grand tack hypothesis

Okay, so imagine you are playing with different toys in your room. Suddenly, you come up with the idea to move all your toys from one corner of the room to the other corner. This way, you can play with them in a different way and have more fun!

The grand tack hypothesis is a bit like that, except it's talking about the planets in our solar system. A long time ago, when the planets were first forming, they were all bunched up close together in the middle of the solar system.

But then something happened. Jupiter, the largest planet, started to move away from the other planets. As it did, its gravity tugged on some of the other planets, causing them to move too.

This started a sort of "tug of war" between the planets, where some would move closer to the sun while others moved further away. This went on for a long time, until Jupiter finally settled into its current orbit.

This "tack" away from the other planets and then back again is what's called the grand tack hypothesis. It explains why some planets, like Mars and Earth, are closer to the sun while others, like Jupiter and Saturn, are further away.

So just like how you moved your toys from one corner of the room to the other, the planets in our solar system moved around and ended up where they are today because of the grand tack hypothesis!