Why do asteroids in the solar system have the sizes we observe? Two researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have found an answer to that fundamental question: For the birth planets and planet precursors in our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, turbulence played a key role, helping to bring together pebble-like objects to form larger aggregations known as planetesimals. The presence of turbulence also sets a minimal mass and thus a minimal size for the resulting objects. From this model, the two researchers can predict the size distribution of the remaining objects of this type in the present solar system, namely the asteroids.
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