One of the most captivating questions in astronomy today is the how our solar system formed? Not only does the answer adds an insight to other similarly forming systems, but also satisfies our curiosity about the origin of our species. It is extremely unlikely that astronomers will ever know with absolute scientific clarity how our system originated, they can however construct similar theoretical models with faiths of gaining a better understanding. With that being said a simple understanding of the current physical characteristics of our solar system would help analyze its origin. Our solar system the place we all call home, lies about 26,000 light years from the sun, the center of our galaxy (The Milky Way). The story of how planets came to be orbiting our brightest yellow star is 6 billion years long. Scientists believe that billions of years ago an ancient star exploded (known as a supernova) littering space with swirling clouds of the material it had made while it had lived and the heavier material it created while it died. In 1755 German scientist and philosopher (Emmanuel Kent) turned his attention to these clouds called nebulae. Kent’s key idea was that a nebulae could collapse in and condense into planets and stars, which is now known as the nebula theory. Every nebula is different from one another and in our case these clouds contained nitrogen, oxygen, silica and other stuff needed to build a world like ours. As our nebula began to collapse under its own gravity and spin faster, a dense clomp of matter formed in the center, called a proto star. Repeated collisions resulted in most of the material eventually collecting into asteroids-sized object called Planetesimals. Then after 4.5 billion years our star formed. 93 million miles away at the heart of the giant nebula the pressure and temperature of a ball of hydrogen gas had become so great, the sun was coming to life. According to astronomers the sun contains approximately 99.85 percent of the mass in our solar system, collectively, the planets account for most of the remaining 0.15 percent. The sun lies in the center of the system, asteroids and planets rotating in elliptical orbits around it, lucky for us the sun is 92.4 million miles in diameter to us or just the right size to burn consistently for a very long time, enough to allow the next development to take place. Today new observation are revealing how, planets and moons of our solar system took shape. Scientists are beginning to understand the astonishing processes that formed them. It seemed there was an explosion so huge that it created an entire universe… (The Big Bag). Although no one knows what created it, science thinks it created space, time and all the matter in the universe. Some astronomers now believe planets grow within the disk of gas particles surrounding a new born sun. In the inner solar system closest to the sun, it stays hot, far too hot for gases or ices to condense, at these temperatures they evaporate instantly, however metallic particles can condense here and the planet that forms
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Scientists like (Gary Lofgren) still studies the lunar samples first brought back by the Apollo astronauts over 30 years ago in order to have better knowledge how our moon and solar system formed. Rocks brought back by Neil Armstrong proved that the chemistry these rocks had was very different from the one on Earth, scientists said that all the theories they had about the moon formation took a different turn when they kept analyzing these rocks. It took decades for scientist to come up with a whole new theory. Studies suggest the moon contains materials that was once part of the earth.
Then there’s Mars the Red Planet; which is only 1/3 of our home it has the most extraordinary features of our solar system, it has the solar system largest Canyon called Valles Marineris, perhaps 3 times bigger than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It also has the largest volcano, Olympus Mons. Its surface temperatures ranges from lows of -140C (-200F) in the winter to highs of 20C (68F) in the
Scientists like (Gary Lofgren) still studies the lunar samples first brought back by the Apollo astronauts over 30 years ago in order to have better knowledge how our moon and solar system formed. Rocks brought back by Neil Armstrong proved that the chemistry these rocks had was very different from the one on Earth, scientists said that all the theories they had about the moon formation took a different turn when they kept analyzing these rocks. It took decades for scientist to come up with a whole new theory. Studies suggest the moon contains materials that was once part of the earth.
Then there’s Mars the Red Planet; which is only 1/3 of our home it has the most extraordinary features of our solar system, it has the solar system largest Canyon called Valles Marineris, perhaps 3 times bigger than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It also has the largest volcano, Olympus Mons. Its surface temperatures ranges from lows of -140C (-200F) in the winter to highs of 20C (68F) in the