TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
As planetary scientists study planet-formation processes, their research shows the difficulties in forming planetary systems with life-supporting planets like Earth. As a gas cloud collapses to form a star and potentially a planetary system, a disk of gas and planetesimals (the “building blocks” of planets) forms around the star. For a gas giant to form, its core must grow faster than the timescale by which it will migrate into the star—around 10,000-100,000 years. This occurs only if the planetesimals are small enough. However, these same planetesimals are the components needed to form a rocky terrestrial planet like Earth. If these planetesimals are too small, the terrestrial planets don’t form before the disk is cleared out of the stellar system. Such fine-tuning comports well with RTB’s cosmic creation model, in which a supernatural Creator intervenes to ensure a habitable system containing both Earth and life-protecting gas-giant planets.
J. E. Chambers, “Planet Formation with Migration,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 652 (2006): L133-L136.
