Yonatan Zunger (zunger) wrote,
Yonatan Zunger
zunger

Planet formation

Apart from being an interesting article, This starts off with one of the best metaphors I've seen in a long time.
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That is rather neat. I hadn't heard that theory before. It makes some amount of sense, however. A gas giant can sweep through clouds of dust and "collect" it, whereas a rock body needs more force and coincidence to acquire mass. Kindof like making a large snowball out of fluffy yet sticky snow, versus hard, crystalline snow.
Except that redwoods don't grow slowly by any stretch of the imagination, especially in the early years. I see redwoods put on over 3' of growth in a season, if they get good light/water.

Just when you're a 300+ tall, 18' dia tree, it slows down a little.... Probably the same overall mass gain per year, just spread out more.

The things are impossible to keep controlled at home...
"The evidence comes in the form of gaps and holes" sounds fun out of context.