Planet Formation Theory - Where did planets come from?
Planets are born from clouds of gas and dust that orbit new stars.
Billions of years ago, circumstances were just right for Earth and the other planets in our Solar System to form.
They emerge from the giant, donut-shaped disk of gas and dust that circles young stars.
Planet formation theory -
The current scientific theory on the formation of planets is that they are formed through a process called accretion, which occurs within a protoplanetary disk.
A protoplanetary disk is a rotating disk of gas and dust that forms around a young star as it begins to condense out of a cloud of gas and dust.
As the disk rotates, particles of dust and gas collide and stick together, gradually forming larger and larger objects.
Gravity and other forces cause material within the disk to collide.
If the collision is gentle enough, the material fuses, growing like rolling snowballs.
These objects eventually become planetesimals, which can range in size from a few centimeters to hundreds of kilometers in diameter.
Over time, these planetesimals continue to grow as they collide with each other and merge to form larger bodies. Eventually, some of these bodies become large enough to be considered planets.
The exact details of this process can vary depending on the specific conditions of the protoplanetary disk and the characteristics of the star around which it forms, but this is the basic idea behind the formation of planets.
The planets, moons, asteroids, and everything else in the solar system formed from the small fraction of material in the region that wasn't incorporated in the young sun.
Planets are born from the clouds when circumstances are just right, and our Solar System consists of a medium-sized star (the Sun) with eight planets orbiting it.
The four inner planets, those closest to the Sun, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. They are smaller and composed mainly of metals and rocks.
The four outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — are larger and composed mostly of gases.