Accretionary processes in the early solar system: an experimental approach

Micrometer-size silicate flakes do not accrete during impacts in the velocity range 1.5 to 9.5 kilometers per second. Conventional accretionary theories for silicate bodies are applicable only to particles whose orbits are similar. Metal-silicate fractionation in the solar system may have been affected by differences in the accretionary behavior of the metal and silicate particles.