Picture a game of billiards, with the balls coming to rest, as opposed to pelting a snowman with snowballs, and you get the idea. Having been slowed down by their first collision, they would be more likely to stick together the next time. ![]() Instead, the authors propose and demonstrate evidence for a novel "hit-and-run-return" scenario, in which pre-planetary bodies spent a good part of their journey through the inner solar system crashing into and ricocheting off of each other, before running into each other again at a later time. The findings challenge the conventional view, in which collisions between smaller building blocks cause them to stick together and, over time, repeated collisions accrete new material to the growing baby planet. Planet formation – the process by which neat, round, distinct planets form from a roiling, swirling cloud of rugged asteroids and mini planets – was likely even messier and more complicated than most scientists would care to admit, according to new research led by researchers at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. ![]() Artist's illustration of two massive objects colliding.
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