Have you ever looked outside a window and stared at the clear night sky, the twinkling stars, and these phenomenal planets orbiting the blazing hot sun? And you might wonder, how did our solar system even form?
Well, after a supernova explosion that destroyed everything in its path, the shock wave that the explosion released came across the solar nebula, causing it to collapse by its own gravity. In the center of that nebula was a little dwarf star still forming. That star is our sun, and these little rocks orbiting around it would soon be the planets we see today.
Eighth grader Guadalupe Hernandez stated, “I don’t know how the solar system formed but I think that something exploded that caused the formation of our solar system.”
Today we will learn how the solar system formed for the people who are curious and want to learn something new about space.
The solar nebula
The solar nebula was surrounding the dwarf star still forming. But, it wasn’t the flat disc we know today. It was more like a sphere around the sun. It looks extraordinary and confusing at the same time, with many colors splashed around like a painting and also has a very glowy presence.
The solar nebula was made up of dust and gas that would soon form our planets, even the one we live on (Earth). According to Britannica, the Solar Nebula was a gaseous cloud that the sun and planets formed by water vapor. The Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg in 1734 concluded that the planets formed from the nebula’s crust that were surrounding the sun, but then broke apart. In 1755 a German philosopher named Immanuel Kant implied that the slow nebula rotation got gradually pulled together by its own gravitational force. Then, it started flattening into a disk-like shape, creating the sun and planets.
The origin of our sun
The sun is very essential to our survival. The sun helps us thrive and live on earth. For example it helps us receive vitamin D, supports bone health, it can lower your blood pressure, prevent diseases and gives us good mental health.
The sun was created by the solar nebula material also creating the other planets. According to NASA, our Sun we know today formed 4.6 billion years ago. The Sun formed in a giant, spinning cloud made up of gas and dust called the solar nebula. When the solar nebula collapsed by its own gravity, it started spinning faster and faster and then flattened into a disk. Now, most of the nebula’s material was pulled toward the center to form our sun. The Sun holds up 99.8% of our solar system mass. The leftover material had formed the planets and the other objects that orbit the sun.
The formation of the planets
These planets have different names for each type. Rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and the ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). But, how did they even form in the first place?
The planets were made of the debris left from the solar nebula. According to Las Cumbres Observatory, the nebula had a number of angular momentum orbiting the sun that was still forming. There were particles in the spinning disc and they began to crash into each other because gravity attracted them. A few million years later the chunks were merged together to make 1ten objects called planetesimals with a diameter of 1000 meters. Later the planetesimals continued to crash together due to gravity and later they formed into planets.
All we know
All the sun, rocky planets, gas giants, and ice giants formed together about 4.6 billion years ago from a cloud made of gas and dust called the solar nebula. Later, after the Sun ignited, a strong solar wind formed and cleared the solar system of gas and dust. The asteroids that remained represent the rocky debris left overs.
Guadalupe • Jan 7, 2025 at 12:47 pm
Something I learned I learned that the sun was formed by a solar nebula which is made up of sinning clouds of gas and dust.
Joshua • Jan 7, 2025 at 12:42 pm
something I learned was that the planets were made from the left over debris the solar nebula left.they crashed with other objects and kept forming into planets.
Axel Rivera • Jan 7, 2025 at 12:38 pm
Something I learned was that the sun started off as gas and dust 4.6 billion years ago.
sherlyn • Jan 7, 2025 at 12:38 pm
Something I learned was the fact that the planets formed because there were spinning particles that crashed with each other.