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Science 29 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5599, pp. 1698 - 1699
DOI: 10.1126/science.298.5599.1698b
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News of the Week

PLANETARY ORIGINS:
A Quickie Birth for Jupiters and Saturns

Richard A. Kerr

On page 1756, a group of astrophysicists presents computer simulations of the nascent solar system that suggest a possible mechanism for the formation of the gas giant planets: runaway fluctuations in the density of the protoplanetary disk. In their model, gas giants of about the right size, number, and orbit condense from a disk of gas to look like very young Jupiters. The trick was to simulate the process in fine detail so that the gas's own gravity could take over.

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