As two massive objects pass near each other, gravitational forces induce dramatic physical changes -- decompressing, melting, stripping material away and even annihilating the smaller object.

It's like uncorking the world's most carbonated beverage. What happens when a planet gets decompressed by 50 percent is something we don't understand very well at this stage, but it can shift the chemistry and physics all over the place, producing a complexity of materials that could very well account for the heterogeneity we see in meteorites.

We're looking at what happens when worlds collide.

As two massive objects pass near each other, gravitational forces induce dramatic physical changes—decompressing, melting, stripping material away, and even annihilating the smaller object. You can do a lot of physics and chemistry on objects in the solar system without even touching them.