THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF THE

SOLAR SYSTEM
WORDS TO STUDY:
 HYPOTHESIS- a supposition or proposed explanation made
on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for limited
evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
 THEORY- a supposition or a system of ideas intended to
explain something, especially one based on general principles
independent of the thing to be explained.
 COSMOGONY- the branch of science that deals with the
origin of the universe, especially the solar system.
 LIGHT -YEAR- is the distance light travels in one Earth year,
which is 9.46 × 1012 km ( nearly 6 trillion miles ).
WHAT IS NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS?
 Proposed by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant in
1755.
 Widely accepted model in the field of cosmogony to explain
the formation and evolution of the Solar System.
 States that 4.6 billion years ago, the Solar System formed
from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud
which was light years across. Several stars, including the Sun,
formed within the collapsing cloud.
This is the nebular hypothesis model
According to this theory, the Sun and all the planets
of our Solar System began as a giant cloud of
molecular gas and dust. Then, about 4.57 billion years
ago, something happened that caused the cloud to
collapse. This could have been the result of a passing
star, or shock waves from a supernova, but the end
result was a gravitational collapse at the center of the
cloud.
From this collapse, pockets of dust and gas began to
collect into denser regions. As the denser regions
pulled in more and more matter, conservation of
momentum caused it to begin rotating, while
increasing pressure caused it to heat up. Most of the
material ended up in a ball at the center while the
rest of the matter flattened out into disk that circled
around it. While the ball at the center formed the
Sun, the rest of the material would form into the
protoplanetary disc.
In contrast, the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
and Neptune) formed beyond the point between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter where material is cool enough for volatile icy
compounds to remain solid (i.e. the Frost Line). The ices that
formed these planets were more plentiful than the metals and
silicates that formed the terrestrial inner planets, allowing them
to grow massive enough to capture large atmospheres of
hydrogen and helium. Leftover debris that never became planets
congregated in regions such as the Asteroid Belt, Kuiper Belt,
and Oort Cloud.
The planets formed by accretion from this disc, in
which dust and gas gravitated together and coalesced to
form ever larger bodies. Due to their higher boiling
points, only metals and silicates could exist in solid
form closer to the Sun, and these would eventually
form the terrestrial planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth,
and Mars. Because metallic elements only comprised a
very small fraction of the solar nebula, the terrestrial
planets could not grow very large.
EVIDENCES OF THE PROPOSAL OF THE THEORY
 All the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction.
Most of their moons also orbit in that direction, and the
planets (and the Sun) rotate in the same direction. This would
be expected if they all formed from a disk of debris around
the pro-Sun.
 The planets also have the right characteristics to
have formed from a disk of mainly hydrogen around
a young, hot Sun. Those planets near the Sun have very
little hydrogen in them as the disk would have been too hot
for it to condense when they formed. Planets further out are
mostly hydrogen and are much more massive because there
was so much more material they could be made from.
STELLAR COLLISION THEORY
 The origin of our entire solar system suggests that our
planets, moons, and sun all spun off from a collision between
stars.
CAPTURE THEORY
 States that our planets and moons were wandering around in
space and the planets were captured by the gravity of our
sun, and the moons were captured by the planets.
GAS CLOUD THEORY
 Our planets and moons teaches that gas clouds were captured
by our sun, which then mysteriously formed themselves at a
distance into planets and moons.
FISSION THEORY
 Says that our sun burst one day, and all our planets came
from it. Then the moons shot out from each planet, stopped,
turned sideways and began circling the planets they came out
of.
THE E
ND