Planetisimal
One of the small bodies that formed from the solar nebula and eventually grew into protoplanets.
Plastic ...
The asteroid belt may be result of fragmentation of planetisimals that were prevented from growing larger by the close proximity of Jupiter's gravitational pull.
Computer simulations showed this could be possible if the last stages of planet building were dominated by several giant impactors, comparable in size to Pluto slamming into the Earth. These large planetisimals would have originated by hoovering up ...
5 billions of years since the planet first formed from agglomerating planetisimals, however, its mostly iron core must also contain a lighter element, such as sulfur, to lower the melting temperature of the core material.
It is likely that the origin of the asteroid belt lies in the gravitational perturbation of Jupiter, which kept these planetisimals from coelescing into larger bodies.
Kirkwood Gaps ...
 See also: Light, Meteor, Disk, Planet, Jupiter
  
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