Solar System
Think of the sun and objects revolving around it as a complex system that provides daily changes in day and night sequences. The objects revolving around the sun are either directly linked or indirectly revolving. Among the items revolving around the sun are the eight planets, while those revolving indirectly are dwarf planet. It is now known the sun sits at the center of the solar system with the planets revolving around it. The main concern is; why the sun spins slowly and only has 1% of the solar system? How did the terrestrial planets form solid cores? Where the gas giant planets like Jupiter formed differently from other planets? How did planetary satellites like the moon come to exist? Why does Bodes law state the distance from the sun follows a simple arithmetic progression? All the questions can be answered by the theories suggesting the origin of the solar system.
Let’s begin with what is the solar system? On its own, the sun is not the solar system but rather a combination of the sun’s planets forming a network. The planetary system is named solar system because the sun assumes the name sol from the Latin word for sun, “Solis” thus, any aspect related to the sun is referred to as solar. The planets are separated from one another by a significant distance keeping them apart.
According to NASA, the solar system comprises the star, the sun, and every object attached to it via gravity. These are the planets; Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The dwarf planets include Pluto, dozens of moons, and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. A recent discovery is the Milky Way.
How the solar system was formed remains a mystery, records suggested over 4.6 billion years ago. A giant cloud of dust referred to as solar nebula collapsed on itself and began to create what is known as the solar system components; the sun and planets. The collapse was associated with the exploding star called the supernova. The theory of explosion suggests the supernova’s outbreak. Various shock waves were sent through space and pushed parts of the nebula close together, resulting from collapsing. The sun took the solar system’s central position, accounting for 99.8% of the solar system’s total mass. The sun is the giant raging ball of fire powered through nuclear reactions and believed in providing energy sustain life on earth. According to NASA, the sun is a yellow star made of gases; 91% hydrogen and 8.9% helium, and it’s relatively small. Other planets and dwarf planets are held around the sun by the gravitational pull.
Some people might ask how old the solar system is and how we can tell and affirm the solar system? Over years, giant pieces of the solar system, the moon or planets, have broken off and fallen on the earth. The components of space rocks or meteorites falling in the ground have given scientists a clear picture of the solar system’s age by analyzing the missing pieces’ chemistry and history. Other scientists have traveled around the solar system since the dust cloud’s collapse and before planets were formed. The latest information known on the solar system’s age was from the Allende meteorite that fell in Mexico in 1969 revealed the solar system to be 4.55 billion years old.
Taking a more significant look at space and narrowing down to the Milky Way galaxy, you can observe the solar system. The astronomers basing on the scientific investigation, believe the solar system was formed 4.5 billion ago. Along with the sun, the cosmic neighbors include the eight planets, mercury having the close range to the sun, followed closely by Venus, Earth, and Mars. The four mentioned planets are referred to as terrestrial planets owing to their stable and rocky nature.
Several theories attempt to explain the phenomena expressed by the solar system; they include the accretion theory, suggesting the sun passes through a dense interstellar cloud and emerges surrounded by a dusty, gaseous envelope. The protoplanet theory states the existence of a dense interstellar cloud producing a cluster of stars—the dense areas in the cloud form and fuse, forming small blobs with random spins. The resulting star will have low rotation rates. The capture theory suggests an interaction of the sun with a nearby protostar that drags a filament of material from the protostar. The sun’s low rotation speed is suggested to be due to its late formation before other planets. The terrestrial planets are formed due to collisions between the protoplanets close to the sun and the giant planets, and their satellites are explained as condensation in the drawn-out filament.
The French astronomer and mathematician Pierre- Simon Laplace suggested the modern Laplacian theory stating that the sun and the planets formed in a rotating nebula, which cooled and collapsed. His theory suggests the nebula collapsed into a ring that formed the planets and the central mass, referred to as the sun. However, it could not explain the slow spin of the sun. According to his theory, it’s assumed that the central condensation contained solid dust grains, which create drag in the gas as the center condenses. Later, after the core has been slowed, its temperature rises, and dust evaporates. The sun becomes the slow rotating core while the planets emerged from the fast-rotating clouds.
The modern nebular theory suggests the planets’ existence from a dense disk of gas and dust cloud that collapsed, forming the sun. The disk had to have a high density to form planets and have enough of the residual matter blown away by the sun as the energy output increases.
The tidal theory suggested by James Hopwood Jeans and Harold Jeffreys indicates the presence of a massive star passing near the sun that set up the tidal forces, and the instability of the sun resulted in some of its parts being separated by gravitational attraction. The materials formed a cigar shape that later formed eight planets. The first planets to separate from the cigar were mercury, venus, earth, and mars. The last four planets cooled down from the cigar shape making a gas giant such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
In conclusion, many attempts have been made to explain the origin of the solar system through the different theories, but none has been conclusive. We, however, understand and believe the mechanism surrounding the origin of the solar system through analysis. The sun and planets are formed through contraction of parts of gas or the dust cloud from the gravitational force. The sun was formed by the central condensation, while the small condensation within the disks formed the planets.
References
Lodders, K. (2003). Solar system abundances and condensation temperatures of the elements. The Astrophysical Journal, 591(2), 1220.
Hayashi, C., Nakazawa, K., & Nakagawa, Y. (1985). Formation of the solar system. PRP, 1100-1153.