| After all, planetesimal sized portions of the Solar System cannot be considered to be orbiting the Earth, except in the obvious case of the Moon. |
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| Models of planetesimal disks suggest that low relative velocities between the bodies produce accretion rather than fragmentation. |
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| His greatest contribution, however, was his planetesimal hypothesis of the origin of the planets. |
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| Should this gas be dense enough, then it would tend to align planetesimal orbits, hence lowering their impact velocities. |
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| Fortunately, the worst of the radiation is blocked by a dense planetesimal debris field, but there is still significant ultraviolet backscatter. |
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| It is indeed likely that a substantial amount of gas from the initial nebulae was still present as planetesimal accretion started. |
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| Many other icy bodies of planetesimal size and smaller are thought to have remained unconsolidated beyond the orbit of Neptune, forming a debris ring called the Kuiper belt. |
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| Its highly inclined, retrograde orbit suggests that it is a captured object, which perhaps formed originally, like Pluto, as an independent icy planetesimal in the outer solar system. |
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| Planetesimal sizes are here a crucial parameter: the smaller there are, the more sensitive to gaseous friction they get. |
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