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2007-03-20 14:05:34 · 6 answers · asked by tina n 2 in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

6 answers

Actually the science behind planet formation is fairly well understood, though most scientists seem to agree that there is still room for better understanding as the current planet formation models can't always account for the differences in planet order from solar system to solar system.

Essentially they are saying that all solar systems (if the current planet formation models are correct) should be like ours, small more dense planets coreward, and larger gas giants futher rimward. We know this isn't the case. Some systems have gas giants very near their parent star. It is possible of course that the current model is absolutely correct and the differences are simply a result of collisions or system wide violent disturbances.

According to stardate online:

The Sun formed from a nebula. The inner planets are mostly rock and metal. The outer planets are mostly ice and gas.
Earth's Moon formed separately from the rest of the solar system .

The solar system was born about 4.5 billion years ago, when something disturbed and compressed a vast cloud of cold gas and dust -- the raw material of stars and planets. The disturbance may have been a collision with another cloud, or a shock wave from an exploding star.

Whatever the cause, the cloud fragmented into smaller, denser pockets of matter, which collapsed inward under the pull of gravity. In perhaps 100,000 years, one of the pockets, called a nebula, condensed into a volume about the size of the present-day solar system. In the dense center of the nebula, a star formed -- our Sun.

The newborn Sun was still surrounded by its nebula, which was spread into a thin disk because the nebula was spinning slowly.

Atoms and molecules within the nebula combined to form larger particles. The Sun determined what kinds of particles could exist. Close to the Sun, solar heat vaporized ices and prevented lightweight elements, like hydrogen and helium, from condensing.

Inner Planets
This zone was dominated by rock and metal, which clumped together into ever-larger bodies, called planetesimals, eventually forming the rocky inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

Outer Planets
In the solar system's outer region, though, it was chilly enough for ices to remain intact. They, too, merged into planetesimals, which in turn came together to form the cores of the giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (Obviously this was written before Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet)

Plenty of hydrogen and helium remained in this region far from the Sun. As the giant planets grew, their gravity swept up much of these leftovers, so they grew larger still. Jupiter and Saturn contain the largest percentages of hydrogen and helium, while Uranus and Neptune contain larger fractions of water, ammonia, methane, and carbon monoxide.

Most of the moons probably formed at the same time as their parent planets. Earth's Moon probably formed a bit later, when a body several times as massive as Mars slammed into our planet. The collision blasted a geyser of hot gas and molten rock into orbit around Earth; the material quickly cooled and coalesced to form the Moon.

2007-03-20 14:56:53 · answer #1 · answered by Corestar 2 · 0 0

The planets form as a cloud of dust and gases contracts, usually due to a nearby supernova. Most of the mass goes to the center to make the sun. Small pieces of dust and gases called planetoids form around the center, collide and stick together to make the planets. When the sun reaches nuclear temperatures, the solar wind starts blowing the leftover dust and gas out of the solar system. Thus you are left with a sun with planets circling around it.

2007-03-20 14:44:12 · answer #2 · answered by Twizard113 5 · 0 0

Conceivably, the gas got here first then the cloud. How the planets formed Astronomers have evolved a idea about how our photograph voltaic equipment formed that explains why it has small, rocky planets close to to the solar and massive, gaseous ones farther away. Astronomers have self assurance our photograph voltaic equipment formed about 4.6 billion years in the past from a good sized, rotating cloud of gas and dirt called the photograph voltaic nebula. Gravity pulled at the same time portion of gas and dirt on the middle of the nebula that replaced into denser than some thing else. the fabric accrued right into a dense, spinning clump that formed our solar. the finest gas and dirt flattened right into a disk called a protoplanetary disk swirling around the solar. Protoplanetary disks round distant stars were first said by telescopes in 1983. Rocky debris in the disk collided and stuck at the same time, forming bodies called planetesimals. Planetesimals later blended to form the planets. on the distances of the outer planets, gases iced over into ice, turning out to be huge balls of frozen gas that formed the Jovian planets. warm gases and electrically charged debris bypass from our solar always, forming a circulation called the photograph voltaic wind. The photograph voltaic wind replaced into more acceptable in the starting up than that's at present. The early photograph voltaic wind drove the gentle elements -- hydrogen and helium -- faraway from the inner planets like Earth. in spite of the undeniable fact that the more acceptable gravity of the coolest sized outer planets hung on to bigger of the planets' hydrogen and helium, and the photograph voltaic wind replaced into weaker there. So those outer planets kept maximum of their gentle elements and wound up with a lot more beneficial mass than Earth. Astronomers evolved those theories at the same time as they idea that rocky planets always orbited close to to the figure action picture star and good sized planets farther out. in spite of the undeniable fact that the "rule" replaced into depending in undemanding words on our own photograph voltaic equipment. Now that astronomers have discovered some thing about different photograph voltaic structures, they have devised new theories. some scientists have stated that the coolest sized planets in different photograph voltaic structures may have formed a procedures from their figure stars and later moved in closer.

2016-12-02 08:03:39 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0 0

Leftovers. When the sun "Turned On" There was a lot of leftover bits of asteroids/gas. Over the Millenia the asteroids/gas fused together and voila! A planet or Gas Giant!

2007-03-20 14:41:03 · answer #4 · answered by Garrett B 1 · 0 0

well on national geographic channel says the sun was bigger then it collapsed and formed the planets there's other guesses scientist made but other than that know body is for sure

2007-03-20 14:23:08 · answer #5 · answered by Delila H 2 · 0 0

From a gas cloud

2015-09-08 12:54:34 · answer #6 · answered by ? 6 · 0 0

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