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Nature 396, 413 (3 December 1998) | doi:10.1038/24731

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Solar system:  Circular problems

Douglas P. Hamilton1

The most striking regularity observed in our Solar System is that the planets all follow nearly circular, nearly co-planar orbits about the Sun. This feature lends strong support to the theory that the planets accreted out of the solar nebula — a flattened disk of gas and dust that surrounded the young Sun (Fig. 1

  1. Douglas P. Hamilton is in the Department of Astronomy, Univèrsity of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
    e-mail: Email: hamilton@astro.umd.edu