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Asked by STUBBY2006 to Daniel, Hannah, Maggie, Ry, Scott on 6 Nov 2017.
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Ry Cutter answered on 6 Nov 2017:
Probably not, most planet formation models require a body pulling in material through gravitation. Plus if there was no gravity , stars couldn’t form so there wouldn’t be any elements heavier than helium! If planets could form they’d be big balls of gas then.
Awesome question,
Ryan
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Scott Melville answered on 6 Nov 2017:
Planets tend to form when two smaller rocks smash together. Gravity then helps to hold them together like glue – I think without gravity, it would be very hard to build planets!
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Maggie Lieu answered on 6 Nov 2017:
Probably not because the formation of planets (or stars or galaxies or clusters, all ) rely on gravity. Without it nothing would stick together. Not unless you have a very large amount of glue 😛
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Hannah Middleton answered on 6 Nov 2017:
No, I don’t think there would be planets! As far as we know solar systems form from clouds of gas and dust that slowly gets drawn together due to gravity. In the middle of the cloud, the gas and dust get more compressed and hotter to form a star. Whilst further out in the cloud, planets and asteroids form in a similar way.
Without gravity there would be no planets or stars or even galaxies! -
Daniel Williams answered on 7 Nov 2017:
No. I think it would be very difficult to think of a way of making a planet which didn’t need gravity.
Planets normally form because gravity makes clouds of “dust” (that’s just the material which is floating around in space, and not really the same stuff that collects on bookshelves and just about everywhere else) clump together. The more stuff that clumps together, the better it gets at clumping more stuff, because its gravitational pull gets stronger. Without gravity there wouldn’t really be anything to make the dust clump together, and there would be no way to eventually make planets.
Even if you could stick a planet together (maybe with velcro or an enormous amount of glue) you’d still never be able to make a planet like Earth. That’s because some of the elements which make up the earth need gravity to be made. Gold and platinum, which are rare but important metals are an example of that. They mostly get made in the explosions which happen when neutron stars are pulled together by gravity. Neutron stars are only made when a massive star collapses because of its own gravity, and starts are only made because clouds of gas clump together because of gravity.
Without gravity none of that could happen!
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