I am not sure if I got that right. What do you mean by 'during planet formation'? It's either formed out not formed. Or do you mean when it's clustering up but haven't taken a rock solid state?
At any point of formation, from the moment the dust starts swirling around to the moment a rock solid planet is formed. Collisions are common! Maybe not as big as Mars crashing into the earth but big and small collisions are quite frequent. Not frequent enough for our civilization to witness them though.
Ah I think I know why we are confused. We are thinking of different things when we say "collisions."
Do you mean colliding with another object that's in its own orbit or tidally locked with another celestial body? If that's what you are talking about then yes, it's not common at all or we would be able to observe it or at least know that another gravitational force exists around us.
^in that's case, we are both referring to the same type of impact. Those are quite common in the life of a planet. Even more common as the planet is forming because the region itself is pretty unstable. Of course the bigger collisions are not as common.
Wandering celestial bodies are not that common though. The impactee is there in its orbit, but the impactor needs to come from outside.
Ok let me read about it that how common such impacts are (between two celestial spheres) and then I will reply
Yeah, me too. I always thought they were a common occurrence. I guess I need to read up to..
It really depends how you look at it. I am sure every second a countless number of stars die and many supernovas happen. I am sure bodies get thrown out of their orbits all the time. WHo knows how long they must travel to reach our solar system. The reason we don't get hit as much is because of our atmosphere. Most debris or small meteorites disintegrate upon entering earth's atmosphere. Many planets don't have an atmosphere that protects their surface.
Impact between bigger heavenly bodies such as moon and planets might be common in the inner and denser regions of our galaxy. But we sit in the out skirts. Nearest star is 4.2 might years away. In such vastness, having a huge moon size object floating by, and then hitting earth is a phenomenon with very little probability
Impact between bigger heavenly bodies such as moon and planets might be common in the inner and denser regions of our galaxy. But we sit in the out skirts. Nearest star is 4.2 might years away. In such vastness, having a huge moon size object floating by, and then hitting earth is a phenomenon with very little probability
Our region has been stabilized. It wasn't always stable. The regions where planets are forming as we speak or Nebulas are very unstable. You were talking about collisions as if they could not happen or were uncommon while planets are forming, that is just not true.