Early Solar System Favored Rocky Formation Over Icy Bodies, Study Suggests

Four and a half billion years ago, the young solar system was not a neutral stage upon which planets of all kinds had equal claim — it was a chemically opinionated crucible that preferred to build with rock and fire. New research reveals that the early solar system's composition actively favored the formation of rocky bodies over icy ones, challenging the long-standing assumption that a planet's final nature was determined primarily by where it happened to settle relative to the sun. This finding invites a deeper reckoning with the idea that the universe does not simply permit worlds — in some