OUTSIDE DISCOVERY

OF THE EARTH

DISCOVERY:
- Nebular Hypothesis

DISCOVERER:
- Immanuel Kant and published in his Universal Natural History and Theory of the
Heavens (1755) and then modified in 1796 by Pierre Laplace

DETAILS:
- Pierre Simon de Laplace proposed the Nebular Hypothesis, an explanation for
how the solar system formed, in 1796. According to Laplace, the solar system was
formed from a slowly rotating cloud, or nebula, of extremely hot gas. As the gas
cooled, the nebula shrank. As the nebula shrank, it rotated faster, becoming
somewhat flattened at the poles.

As the nebula shrank, rings of gas were left behind due to a combination of
centrifugal force caused by the nebula's rotation and gravitational force caused by
the nebula's mass. The rings formed planets and their satellites, while the
remaining nebula formed the sun.

KEY FACTS:
- The nebular hypothesis, which has been widely accepted for over a century, has several
serious flaws. The most serious concern is the sun's rotational speed. When the nebular
hypothesis is applied mathematically to the known orbital momentum of the planets, it
predicts that the sun must rotate approximately 50 times faster than it actually does. There
is also some doubt that Laplace's rings would ever condense into planets.
-
- The nebular hypothesis was rejected in the early twentieth century, and the planetesimal
hypothesis, which proposed that the planets were formed from material drawn from the
sun, gained popularity. This theory was also unsatisfactory. Later theories revived the
idea of the planets having a nebular origin.

Kenniel Deo M. Elchico

VII - ARISTOTLE