what caused the solar nebula to collapse?

Question

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where did the heavy elements settle in the solar system

how old is the sun n earth

where did surface water on earth come from

what did primitive earth look like from space

Answer 1

Gravity caused it.
Due to violent collisions among the infant planets of our early solar system and proto-asteroids and moonlets and planetoids, the heavy elements ended up scattered randomly about all the planets, and some were surely sucked into the sun's gravity well. Since Jupiter is the biggest, its safe to say that most of the heavy stuff not gobbled up by the sun ended up there.

Answer 2

Nebulas are by nature somewhat restless. The dust and gas move around, and small higher-density areas can cause the material in that area to start to collapse from internal gravity.
And if the nebula is moving and enters an area of space with matter already there, the shock of the two regions in collision can cause waves to move through the nebula, compressing some areas that can then start to collapse.
Or if a supernova or other cosmic explosion occurs nearby, the subsequent shock wave can do the same thing.

To your additional details:
The heavier elements in the solar nebula (only about 2% of the total mass of the nebula) were relatively evenly spread throughout the nebula - some was incorporated into the forming sun, the rest was incorporated into the planetesimals that formed and became the planets themselves.
When the protosun heated up, much of the lighter elements would have been blown farther from the sun by the solar wind, but the heavier elements would have been less affected by the solar wind. That is why the inner planets have a larger percentage of heavier elements than the gas giants.

Answer 3

Most likely what caused the Solar nebula to collapse was the shock waves from a supernovae going off nearby, or the Solar nebula colliding with another nebula. In either case, gravity gained the upper hand over the Solar nebula's internal pressure and the birth of the Solar System began.

The heavy elements that exist in the Solar System came from previous generations of stars. Massive stars and white dwarfs created heavy elements then expelled them back into space when they exploded as supernovae. White dwarfs getting too massive and turning themselves into nuclear bombs contributed much of the elements from carbon all the way to iron. Massive stars also spat these elements back into space, and the immensely powerful neutron surges and shock waves that occurred when they went supernova created elements all the way up to Plutonium.

Evidence for a supernova kick starting the birth of the Solar System comes from the discovery of daughter isotopes created by the decay of very unstable isotopes such as Aluminum 26 which had a half life of 700,000 years. The only place where these very radioactive and short lived isotopes could be created is a supernova, in particular a core collapse supernova that destroys a massive star. It and other very unstable isotopes caused the inner planets and even small planetesimals to heat up and melt completely inside and out. Now these isotopes are almost completely absent from the Solar System, and only exist in the laboratory where a nuclear reactor is used to produce them.
Analysis of meteorites also indicate the Earth and other planets formed along with the Sun some 4.6 billion years ago.

As for where the Earth's water came from, some undoubtedly came out of the planet's interior, but much of it must have been brought by impacting comets and asteroids. Earth was born red hot and the titanic impact between Earth and another growing planet that formed the moon melted the planet's outer layers totally. Much water must have been lost, only to be replaced by more water brought in by the intense bombardment the Earth endured during it's formative years.

Earth at first was a seething ball of molten rock and metal. Once a solid crust formed, it became quickly pocked with countless impact craters along with volcanoes and lava flows. Once the atmosphere developed and the oceans formed, this primitive, crater pocked crust started undergoing plate tectonics and the formation of the first continents. By 4 billion years ago, Earth lost it's crater pocked face and was well on the way to becoming the planet we know today.

Answer 4

solar nebulae collapse due to gravity of the particles within the nebulae.

sun = 4.6 billion yrs old
earth= < (less than) 4.6billion yrs [it depends at what stage you define a planet]

heavy elements are generally defined as elements greater than iron... since Fe-56 is the most stable isotope in existance... and due to this... most stars burn out when their core is composed of mainly iron since it takes more energy to synethesize iron with other elements than the energy contained within the iron atom itself... therefore... heavy metal originates from a source w/ more energy than an ordinary star.... in other words.... supernovae and hypernovae...
heavy metal is generally found in most planets... some are obviously found on the sun too... for example... all elements greater than the atomic mass of iron... (or greater than the atomic mass of 26) is found all over earth... ex. copper, nickel, silver, gold, uranium... though.. this information does not sway any favoritism towards one side regarding the % of this as opposed to the rest of the solar system....
to put this into perspective a little bit more.... the % composition of uranium within the human body is approximately the same as % composition of uranium within the sun... however... due to the large mass of the sun.. you would expect to find more within the star...

water found on the earth obviously wasnt there during its formation... as the planet began to comprise mostly of oxygen... these oxygen atoms began to bond with hydrogen atoms (in the ratio of 1:2) to from H2O... since... water is a stable compound unlike many of the reactions and elements found on earth during the time... these reactions would tend to want to form more stabler substances like water since laws of the universe tend to go from excited to low energy state... increasing entropy...

primitive earth probably looked like a mass of gas and dust clouds forming into a circular globe due to the gravity of these particles.

Answer 5

the solar nebula collapse by gravity

Answer 6

Gravitational force