The Sun and the Origins of the Solar System

The Sun and the Origins of the Solar System — page 3
The Sun and The Origins Of The Solar System the cloud collapsed so much that it became dense enough and hot enough for nuclear reactions to begin and the Sun was born Meanwhile away from the center the gas and dust in the spinning disk cooled Solid grains of silicates and other minerals the basis of rocks condensed out of the gaseous material in the disk Farther from the center where temperatures temperatures were lower ices of water methane ammonia and other gases began to form The spinning material in the disk collided and began to stick together forming larger and larger objects Ultimately some of the clumped together objects grew huge and developed into planets The inner planets formed mostly from chunks of silicate silicate rock and metal while the outer planets developed mainly from ices Smaller chunks of matter and debris that did not get incorporated into the planets became asteroids in the inner part of the solar nebula and comet nuclei in the outer part of the nebula At some point after the matter in the nebula had condensed and clumped into objects the intensity of the solar wind suddenly increased This blew much of the rest of the gas and dust off into space This general formation process is thought not to be unique to the solar system but rather to be how stars and planets throughout the universe develop Astronomers have detected disks of matter surrounding newly formed stars 8