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Show Explaining the "Planetesmal" Theory The visiting-star left behind a sun surrounded bv a vast revolving cloud of matter that bad been torn out of it. In this cloud were millions of small lumps of matter called "planetes-mals," "planetes-mals," or baby planets. One of them, a little larger than the others, became be-came the nucleus of our earth. It picked up the smaller lumps that happened hap-pened to be revolving about the sun in the same general path. Think' of a molasses-coated baseball flying through an endless swarm of gnats. In the course of lime millions on millions of years the earth picked up nearly all the baby planets within its reach. Popular Science Monthly. |