"In the early solar system, the gas giants sat in a dusty cloud around the nascent sun in nearly circular orbits." by Andy Tomaswick via Universe Today Headline Image: © NASA / JPL-Caltech / T. Pyle (SSC) Artist rendering of an early solar system. The solar system's current planetary orbits seem stable, but that's only because the planets have settled into them over billions of years. The early solar system was a much different place than that seen today, and for almost 20 years, scientists thought they had a good handle on how it got that way. But more recently, data had started pointing to some flaws in that understanding - especially about how the giant planets in the outer solar system got where they are today. Now an international team of astrophysicists thinks they have a better understanding of that process, and they believe it could help solve a long-standing argument about the early solar system. Currently, the best model scientists have for the formation of the solar system