In this episode we tackle two more questions from our lovely listeners. The first is about what determines the rotation of planets and the second one focuses on the matter at hand: are we really made from stardust?
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So we have a cooling-down nebula and the core condenses. Then gravity takes over and the core collapses on itself and this additional thing ignites nuclear fusion. Really you have a star, a proto-star at the center and the heat starts dissipating the gas cloud. And what you get is the formation of some more complex molecules or breaking down complex molecules and you have two very distinct areas. One is the internal area in which the materials dry and one is, what we call beyond the snowline, where the material is wet in a way, but mostly is you have ice and you have a lot of pebbles.
And this is one of the ideas of planetary formation that you start from small fragments that start hitting each other and merging together, and getting bigger, bigger. And the bigger you are the more of these pebbles your attract.
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What we also need to consider is that these pebbles don’t just like jump up on the planets without having their own trajectory and force. And so they start hitting the planets in a certain direction and this and the natural movement of original pebbles that creates the angular momentum. And having this angular momentum doesn’t mean that it needs to be unchanging. You have, for example, Venus, which rotates in the other direction compared to every other planet in the solar system.
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The next question comes from Lewis Fieldwater on Instagram, who asks, “Are we really made of stardust?”
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Okay, moving swiftly on from this excursion. All the elements that make us apart from hydrogen were created in stars or in cataclysmic stellar events.
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Top Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser + Chris Carpineti