Earth & Life Science
and the other planets would be explained.
1.2 Describe the different hypotheses explaining the origin of the
Solar System.
What is the Solar System?
Our Solar System consists of an average star we call the Sun and the
planets. It includes: the satellites of the planets; numerous comets,
asteroids, and meteoroids; and the interplanetary medium.
What are the theories on the origin of the solar system?
1. Theory of Vortices - postulated that the space was entirely filled
with matter in various states, whirling about the sun like a vortex.
Rene Descartes - He invented this theory in the mid 1600’s, He
explained that once the particles in the universe began to move, the
overall motion would have been circular because there is no void in
nature. Whenever a single particle moves, another particle must also
move to occupy the space where the previous particle once was.
This type of circular motion (vortex) would have created the orbits of
the planets about the sun with heavier objects spinning towards the
outside of the vortex and lighter objects remaining closer to the
center.
2. Nebular Hypothesis –in this theory, thin, dim clouds of dust and
gas out in the cosmos would collapse in on themselves under the
force of gravity.
The nebular hypothesis is the most widely accepted model in the field
of cosmogony to explain the formation and evolution of the Solar
System.
Immanuel Kant – He postulated the nebular hypothesis using
Newton’s idea of gravity. From this spinning disk, stars and planets
would form, and from this type of formation, the rotation of earth
3. Laplace’s Nebular Theory - It is a theory that states a slowly
rotating nebula (a cloud of vast gas and dust) collapsed under gravity
forming an oblate spheroid due to the increase in it’s spin rate.
Pierre Simon Laplace – a French mathematician, He proposed this
idea in the year of 1700.
4. Leclerc-Buffon Idea - Georges-Louis Leclerc and Comte de Buffon
conceived the idea that a comet collided with the Sun sending matter
off to form the planets.
5. Chemical Composition Analysis – It was Harold Urey who initially
studied the meteorites and their chemical analysis. He concluded that
meteorites contain matter that had changed very little in the early
history of the solar system. This set a new trend in understanding the
solar system whose origin can be based on its chemical composition.
6. Solar Nebular Disk Model (SNDM) –Developed by Soviet
astronomer Victor Safronov. According to this model, our star system
was formed 4.568 billion years ago when a small part of a giant
molecular cloud experienced a gravitational collapse. Most of the
collapsing mass collected in the center forming the Sun while the rest
flattened into a protoplanetary disk, out of which the planets, moons,
asteroids, and other small solar system bodies formed.