Perplexed in Peoria  wrote or quoted:
> "Paul Ciszek"  wrote in message
news:cev3s1$17ec$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> > Maurice Barnhill   wrote:

Re: http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040726/full/040726-14.html

> > >I wouldn't give up yet.  Current planet-searches are not as
> > >sensitive to planetary systems like ours as they are to "hot
> > >Jupiters."  The conclusion that there are two different
> > >mechanisms for producing planetary systems is reasonable, but if
> > >so the results of current searches for planets do not necessarily
> > >imply that the number of systems like ours is small, only that
> > >systems like ours are hard to observe.
> >
> > Disks of crud have been seen around some young stars; such a
> > situation probably led to the formation of our solar system.
> > Once the crud has accreted into planets, their presence would
> > be hard to detect.  So, if someone could prove that disks of
> > crud were the rule rather than the exception early in stellar
> > evolution, and that very few stars have disks of crud later,
> > that would be significant.
>
> I'm not sure that would help.  We still wouldn't know whether the
> typical fate of a disk is to turn into a "hot Jupiter" system,
> or a sol-like system, or something else entirely.  What we need
> is a "telescope" with high enough resolution to actually
"see"
> planets the size of Earth at a distance of 1000 ly.  NASA has
> such a system on the drawing boards, but it is at least 10 years
> off, even if it were to get funding.

If the debate is between "condensing gas" and "aggreating
pebbles"
than the main variable seems to be the size of the particles -
and in that case it's possible some computer simulations might
help throw some light on the issue of what resulting planet sizes
can be reasonably expected.
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