From: gdpusch@NO.xnet.SPAM.com   
   Copy: wallacethinmintr@eircom.net   
      
   wallacethinmintr@eircom.net (Russell Wallace) writes:   
      
   > Something I'm curious about: All the outer planets seem to have   
   > trillions of objects in orbit around them, in a smooth continuum from   
   > moons comparable in size to our own, down to microscopic dust specks.   
   > Yet all the inner planets seem to be completely devoid of orbiting   
   > material, apart from the three moons Earth and Mars possess between   
   > them. Does anyone know the reason for the discrepancy?   
      
   Gas-giant planets and "terrestrial" planest are believed to form by   
   different physical mechanisms. "Terrestrial" planets are believed   
   to form by collisional accretion of "planetesimals," whereas "gas giant"   
   planets are believed to form by accretion from a sub-disk embedded within   
   the main protoplanetary disk that itself resembles a "mini solar system."   
      
      
   -- Gordon D. Pusch   
      
   perl -e '$_ = "gdpusch\@NO.xnet.SPAM.com\n"; s/NO\.//; s/SPAM\.//; print;'   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)