[Spyder]

No arguments. Except that moons tend to be different by definition. They're trapped by the gravity of a planet, not a star. Because of this they are necessarily smaller (less gravity there)...tiny. Also, there are many possible explanations for moons other than being caught there when the planet was formed.

I was speaking primarily of planets...moons of a star, as it were. If you dropped the moons from your list, you'd get a roughly bell shaped curve with medium planets being the most numerous.

As things go, I think that this would be the norm because of the very forces you mentioned in your explanation of star system building. Most 'chunks' would be medium sized (by definition) and therefore would seem to be the most likely (because of their number) to find just the right distance from the forming sun to remain in orbit and not float away or be sucked back as the star contracts. The number of large & huge 'chunks' would be smaller and so there would be less chance that some would be caught in the system...same for tiny.


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Spyder, Chairman of the Arachnid Consortium

[This message has been edited by Spyder (edited 12 March 2001).]