(SLIDE 16-18) What is a Solar System?

To simply define: A solar system is a group of planets and other bodies that revolve around a star. Like for example, our
planet or the Earth is in a solar system with seven other planets and some other objects orbiting our star or the Sun. To
learn more about our solar system, what exactly is IN our Solar System? Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun -
the center of our solar system and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and
meteoroids. Those are what's in our solar system. Our solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a dense
cloud of interstellar gas and dust. The cloud collapsed, possibly due to the shockwave of a nearby exploding star, called a
supernova.

(SLIDE 19) There are many theories about the solar system that have been proposed since about four centuries ago; the
nebular hypothesis is the most widely accepted model in the field of cosmology to explain the formation and evolution
of the solar system. It explains how all of the planets formed in their current orbits, and why they are made of different
materials. The basic idea behind the nebular hypothesis is that a large cloud of dust and gas (a nebula) collapsed under
its own gravity. As the nebula collapsed, it spun faster and flattened out into a disk shape. As the nebula continued to
collapse, the material in the center became increasingly dense and hot. This central region eventually became our Sun,
while the rest of the disk became our planets and moons. The solar system we see today is thought to have formed in
this way, over four billion years ago.

(SLIDE 20)

• The cometary collision hypothesis, proposed in 1749 by Comte de Buffon, which states that a comet struck the
Sun and broke off fragments which formed the planets.
• James Dean’s Tidal Hypothesis, according to this theory, a star narrowly missed colliding with the Sun and, in its
passing, drew away from the Sun stellar debris that condensed to form the planets.
• The Chamberlin-Moulton planetesimal hypothesis is a theory of the formation of the Solar System that involves a
collision between the Sun and another star. It was proposed by Thomas Chamberlin and Forest Moulton in 1905
as an alternative to the nebular hypothesis. The hypothesis suggests that the gravity of the passing star pulled
out a series of blobs from the Sun, which then condensed into planets.
• Lyttleton’s scenario stated that terrestrial planets were too small to condense on their own and suggested that
one very large proto-planet broke in two because of rotational instability, forming Jupiter and Saturn, with a
connecting filament from which the other planets formed.