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I'm curious how an object this size with a planet's mass is not sweeping all the dust and rocks in its area as it moves through its orbit, like Jupiter cleans u
by imglorp 7y ago
I'm curious how an object this size with a planet's mass is not sweeping all the dust and rocks in its area as it moves through its orbit, like Jupiter cleans up the outer solar system. Even interstellar space has around 1e6 loose ions per cc. Is it radiating faster than it's eating?
- chowells 7y agoGravity doesn't care what size the object is, from far enough away. It would sweep the same area as any other density of planet with the same mass. For something at 5 earth masses, that's not a very big area.
- saagarjha 7y agoThings can’t collide with a small object.
- chowells 7y agoAlmost none of the orbital sweeping effect comes from collisions. Even Jupiter is tiny, in the scope of space. The majority of orbital sweeping comes from repeated gravitational deflection. Having a tiny radius will reduce the amount of of collisions, but it won't have a significant impact on orbital clearing.
- saagarjha 7y agoThe comment mentioned "eating" specifically, where I felt collisions would be important. You're right that for clearing the size of the object isn't very important.