Fractal Planets, Real

We may owe our lives to fractals

Heavy elements are produced by supernovas. Some of the resulting clouds of hot gases slowly coalesce, their centers collapsing under gravity to form stars. Somehow parts of the outer regions of these clouds form planets. How does this happen?
The standard model involves collisions of successively larger objects.
More careful calculations reveal a problem with the standard model.
Another model avoids this problem by asserting that instead of small rocks, fractal dust clumps form.
There is some evidence to support this view.
Comets are thought to be fossils from the very early solar system. During the last flyby of Halley, the density was estimated at about 0.2 gm/cm3 - that is, this comet is not a huge snowball, but rather is very fluffy, possibly with a fractal structure.
Many details of this model remain unclear. In particular, the mechanical properties of fractal dust is an area of active research. If we observe the sorts of restructuring necessary to make the transition from cotton ball to planetisimal, then fractals may take on a very important role in our history.