A physics prof. I had a few years ago said that in studies he had performed that it is more like the development of "cobwebs". He suggested that gravitation isn't strong enough to get chunks to stick together. Over time the cobweb like objects grow and join with other cobweb like objects until gravity is strong enough to take over.

Clear skies,

Dale.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Gibson [mailto:jimgibson00@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 8:30 AM
To: List; UVAA List
Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Trapezium

... The dust in the nebulosity was like fine grains of sand or smaller. Over time the dust coalesced in to larger clumps and like a snow ball rolling down hill it continued to grow. Actually there were several snow balls all getting larger at the same time. For over a million years they grew from marbles to boulders, to planetoids, to planets and finely so large that the physics involved with gravity and impacting debris there was a nuclear fusion reaction igniting a star.
JG