[PatrickHenry]

I donno. My very limited understanding of dark energy is that it only manifests its effect on a cosmological scale. In that case, it wouldn't affect the formation of planets. I think that plain old gravitational attraction would be sufficient for planetary formation. I'm pinging RA for his input (which will be much more informed than mine).

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your reply and for sharing your view of it! I also am hopeful that RadioAstronomer will have some answers or perhaps, leads to follow.

[RadioAstronomer]

I donno. My very limited understanding of dark energy is that it only manifests its effect on a cosmological scale. In that case, it wouldn't affect the formation of planets. I think that plain old gravitational attraction would be sufficient for planetary formation. I'm pinging RA for his input (which will be much more informed than mine).

I am not so sure about that in this case. Miked or Physicist may be closer to this question. However, here is a really cool link to an ongoing compilation of knowlege that includes discussions on dark energy.

http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/

I will look into this a bit further myself as well. :-)

[jpsb]

"I think that plain old gravitational attraction "

I agree, and do not see a problem with seeding the gas disk with a few 1 km objects. Space junk happens.