{"id":6553,"date":"2017-10-30T10:30:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T09:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=6553"},"modified":"2017-10-30T10:30:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T09:30:20","slug":"how-planets-formed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/science-mct\/space\/how-planets-formed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Planet Building Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open University researchers have been investigating exactly how planet formation starts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why do we need to know how planets form?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Planets form as a by-product of star formation. Similar to asteroids, comets, and our Moon, planets are basically the left-over “junk” that isn’t incorporated into the star itself. However, planets (and other small bodies in a star-panet system) are also exciting places, where the conditions might just exist to have an atmopshere and liquid water, and the potential for the emergence of life.<\/p>\n

Understanding planet formation is one of the big\u00a0 questions driving astrobiology, astrochemistry, and astronomy research.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the current theory on how planets are formed?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Our basic understanding is that small icy particles stick together, building bigger particles which then also stick, and so forth, until eventually, we have a planet. However, as with any scientific endeavour, nothing is as simple as it seems and there isn\u2019t a concrete answer to the question of how planets form.<\/p>\n

We understand the forces that make very small things (smaller than the width of a human hair) stick; we understand that gravity makes big things stick, but in between scientists are flummoxed. Researchers at The Open University have been investigating the \u2018stick and grow\u2019 theory with a series of experiments, involving scientists from across Europe.<\/p>\n

What was the experiment?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dr Helen Fraser\u2019s<\/a> research team built a \u201cparticle-bashing\u201d machine to test if icy grains collide and stick in space. To recreate a space-like microgravity environment, the experiment had to operate at low pressure, low temperature and very low velocity. You can take a look at the machine and listen to Dr Fraser explaining how it works in this video:<\/p>\n