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    The Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of a giant gas cloud. The center of the spinning disk became the Sun, while the planets formed from leftover material in orbit around the Sun. The formation of the Solar System allowed for the emergence of life on Earth by providing an environment with necessary chemicals and energy from the Sun. Astronomers understand the origins and structure of the Solar System by observing patterns in planetary orbits and disks around young stars where planets may be forming.

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    BIg history project

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    The Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of a giant gas cloud. The center of the spinning disk became the Sun, while the planets formed from leftover material in orbit around the Sun. The formation of the Solar System allowed for the emergence of life on Earth by providing an environment with necessary chemicals and energy from the Sun. Astronomers understand the origins and structure of the Solar System by observing patterns in planetary orbits and disks around young stars where planets may be forming.

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    13 views1 page

    U4 Solar System Concept

    Uploaded by

    James Jiang
    The Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of a giant gas cloud. The center of the spinning disk became the Sun, while the planets formed from leftover material in orbit around the Sun. The formation of the Solar System allowed for the emergence of life on Earth by providing an environment with necessary chemicals and energy from the Sun. Astronomers understand the origins and structure of the Solar System by observing patterns in planetary orbits and disks around young stars where planets may be forming.

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    UNIT 4 CONCEPT

    THE SOLAR SYSTEM (AND ITS ORIGINS)


    WHAT IS IT?

    The Solar System includes our star the Sun and the planets, dwarf planets, comets, asteroids, and other matter that orbit the Sun.

     The Sun and the Solar System were formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a giant gas cloud composed mostly of hydrogen and helium atoms collapsed into a spinning disk.  The center of the disk became the Sun, while four rocky planets and four gas giants formed in orbit around the Sun. The Sun contains 99.9 percent of all the mass in the Solar System, while the planets are leftovers of the original accretion disk.  The Solar System is vast. Neptune, the outermost planet, is 30 times farther away from the Sun than the Earth is. Beyond Neptunes orbit lies the Kuiper Belt, which includes the dwarf planet Pluto. The comet-filled Oort Cloud may be the most distant part of the Solar System, a light-year away from the Sun (more than 1000 times farther away than Pluto!).

    WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

    The formation of the Solar System would have been impossible if not for the existence of earlier stars that lived and died long before the Sun was born, and life as we know it on Earth would be impossible without our Solar System.

     These earlier stars created heavy elements that help make up Earth, including iron, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, sulfur, nickel, calcium, and aluminum.  The Solar System sets the stage for the emergence of life: its rocky inner planets, especially Earth, provide an environment with water and other chemicals that are necessary for life to exist, and the Sun provides the necessary energy.

    HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT IT?

    The Solar System has a certain order to it: all planets move around the Sun in nearly circular orbits, in the same direction, in almost the same plane. The idea that the Solar System formed from a spinning disk explains all of these features.

     We also observe similar disks around young stars elsewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy, where planets like our own might be forming.  The study of other star systems, including those with exoplanets, gives astronomers the opportunity to further test and refine their ideas about how our Solar System formed.

    BIG HISTORY PROJECT

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