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Nature 452, 194-197 (13 March 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06671;

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Reflected light from sand grains in the terrestrial zone of a protoplanetary disk

In the standard model of terrestrial planet formation, the first step in the process is for interstellar dust to coagulate within a protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star, forming large grains that settle towards the disk plane. Interstellar grains of typical size |[sim]|0.1|[thinsp]||[mgr]|m are expected to grow to millimetre- (sand), centimetre- (pebble) or even metre-sized (boulder) objects rather quickly.

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