Abstract
One of the outstanding problems in planetary cosmogony is to account for the depletion of hydrogen in the outer planets, Neptune and Uranus. It is suggested that these planets were originally similar to the major planets but that the settling towards the centre of grains, enriched by substances such as methane, ammonia and water because of the low temperatures, released enough energy to cause the evaporation of most of the hydrogen.
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Handbury, M.J., Williams, I.P. The formation of the outer planets. Astrophys Space Sci 38, 29–37 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00646097
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00646097