Our solar system was created from a dust and gas cloud called the solar nebula.
ID: 369 • Letter: O
Question
Our solar system was created from a dust and gas cloud called the solar nebula. Describe the processes that took place in this theory of creation and specifically how it came to be that we have a star and planets rotating around that star and the orbital motion is all in the same plane and the same direction. What is your view of this theory and why do you feel that way? Our solar system was created from a dust and gas cloud called the solar nebula. Describe the processes that took place in this theory of creation and specifically how it came to be that we have a star and planets rotating around that star and the orbital motion is all in the same plane and the same direction. What is your view of this theory and why do you feel that way?Explanation / Answer
Our solar system began forming within a concentration of interstellar dust and hydrogen gas called a molecular cloud . The cloud contarcted under its own gravity and our SUn formed in its dense center . The remainder of the cloud formed a swirling disk called solar nebula.
Just like a dancer spins fatser as she pulls her arms in , the cloud began to spin and it started to collapse. Eventually the cloud grew hotter and denser in the center , with a disk of gas and dust surrounding it ( that was hot at the center and cool at the edges) . As teh disk started to become thinner and thinner , particles began to stick together and form clumps . Some clumps got bigger , as other particles and smaller clumps stuck to them , eventually forming planets and moons . Near the center of the cloud , where planets like Earth formed , only rocky material could stand the great heat. Icy material settled in the outer regions of the disk along with rocky material , where planets like Jupiter formed.
As the gravitational collapse continues kinetic energy of motion of the fragments is gradually converted into heat energy, and the cloud becomes a smaller cloud. Because of conservation of angular momentum it will also be spinning -- and start to show a coherent rotation which will become faster and faster as the cloud gets smaller and smaller. It is like an extreme form of a skater pulling her arms in. But when a central star starts to form, its rate of spinning just cannot keep up, and some of the cloud must move away from it in a flat disk to maintain that angular momentum. Gradually the flat disk will istelf collapse into planets. But the initial angular motion -- a small total angular velocity in a large cloud -- nust conserve its angular momentum. So everything -- the rotation of the star, the orbits of the planets, and the rotations of the planets, will be moving in pretty much the same angular direction in pretty much the same plane when the angular momentum of that motion must be imposed on a much smaller solar system.
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