Tiny Pebbles Built the Gas Giant Behemoths

astroengine writes: Scientists have long puzzled over how gas planets like Jupiter and Saturn got to be so big. Current theories suggest the cores of these behemoths are comprised of mini-planets, some 62- to 620 miles in diameter, which collided and gradually merged together over time. But computer simulations show this process is more likely to produce hundreds of Earth-sized worlds. Instead, a new study suggests "slow pebble accretion" is a more likely process.

Comments

Magnetism

[Henriok]

Studies have also shown that magnetic forces might count for the majority of clumping of matter in sizes smaller than regular rocks. On those scales gravity doesn't do much, but magnetism can do plenty. And it wouldn't be strange for protoplanetary matter is magnetized since it's whirling around in the Sun's magnetic field.

"Gas Giant Behemoths" . . . ?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

. . . and silly me was thinking that this article would be about the Koch Brothers . . .