Sentences with phrase «called planetesimals»

A planet in an inclined orbit gravitationally attracts small bodies of rock and / or ice, called planetesimals, from the main disk, and moves them into an orbit aligned with that of the planet.

Swarms of boulder - size objects called planetesimals slowly accreted to form the rocky planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars — and their various and sundry satellites.

Within about 3 million years, small, rocky objects called planetesimals were circulating in the nascent solar system.

In contrast to earlier observations the team did not observe dust that will later form into planets, but dust created in collisions between small planets of a few kilometres in size — objects called planetesimals that are similar to the asteroids and comets of the Solar System.

Not exact matches

Re: phosphorus in meteorites Any so - called theory about conditions 3.5 billion years ago had better integrate the collision with the planetesimal that gave rise to our Moon and what that means in terms of elements, geological processes, and so forth.

The incredibly diverse mix of molecules and particles that we call air has a history stretching back to 4.5 billion years ago, when space rocks and planetesimals bombarded the still - forming Earth.

Fragments of these planetesimals remain today as meteorites called achondrites, which scientists have pored over for clues to how planets formed.