Abstract
A CONSIDERABLE amount of interest has been shown in recent times on the subject of the origin of planets and satellites, and various theories have been developed with the primary object of circumventing the angular momentum difficulty. A recent paper by B. M. Peek, entitled “The Formation of Planetary Systems” (J. Brit. Astro. Assoc., 53, 1 ; December, 1942), puts forward a theory which possesses at least the merits of simplicity. He starts off with a quotation from Sir James Jeans's “Astronomy and Cosmogony” (1928), which attempts to explain the angular momentum of the nebulae : “Any currents or motion in the original medium would contribute angular momentum to the nascent nebulae, and as these shrank to nebular dimensions, the constancy of angular momentum would result in fairly rapid rotations of the shrunken masses”. Peek extends this view to the next order of condensation-the stars-and is thus able to explain how the necessary angular momentum of the solar system, and other possible planetary systems too, can be accounted for.
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FORMATION OF PLANETARY SYSTEMS. Nature 151, 200 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151200a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151200a0