There was only a cloud of gas and microscopic dust orbiting a newborn star—our Sun. The story of how that dust became a planet is one of the most incredible transformations in the universe. It started with a force you experience when you rub a balloon on your hair: static electricity. In the vacuum of space, gravity is too weak to pull tiny dust grains together. Instead, electrostatic forces caused these microscopic particles to cling to each other, forming fluffy clumps of cosmic dust bunnies.

The Growth of Cosmic Dust Grains in the Disc Around the Brown Dwarf...