The Origin of the Solar System

by Lambert Dolphin

Scientific textbooks are clearly written, lavishly illustrated, and they carry the full weight of the authors' beliefs and experience. Every generation of eager young students all too eagerly accepts the current scientific theories as gospel truth, not realizing that the text books of a previous generation proclaimed---with the same authority---models of the real world that have now been discarded. Such is the nature of "scientific progress!" "Science is the only self-correcting human institution, but it is also a process that progresses only by showing itself to be wrong."---Astronomer Allan Sandage. Theories for the origin of our solar system have come and gone, yet even today no satisfactory model exists that both explains all the facts and is consistent with the known laws of physics. As science in the western world began to abandon a Judeo-Christian view of creation, beginning about 200 years ago, the trend towards purely naturalistic explanations emerged. Today these views, known as "scientism" constitute the majority state-religion in our public school systems---if God exists at all He is uninvolved and irrelevant to a full understanding of the world we live in. (Ref. 1). German philosopher Immanuel Kant in 1755 hypothesized the origin of the solar system as beginning with a rotating gaseous nebula out of which condensed globular bodies that became the sun and planets---all revolving in the same direction. (Ref. 2). Essentially the same theory, now called "the nebular hypothesis" was proposed by the French mathematician Laplace in 1796. According to this model the hot rotating gas cloud began to cool and contract, and if this were to happen the law of conservation of angular momentum requires a more rapid rate of rotation. This speed up was supposed to have flung off rings which condensed into the planets. James Clerk Maxwell and Sir James Jeans refuted the nebular hypothesis a hundred years later by showing that there was insufficient mass in the rings to provide enough gravitational attraction to form planets. Then, astronomer F.R. Moulton of Chicago called to attention the fact that the planets of our solar system carry 99% of the angular momentum of the solar system, while the sun has 99.9% of the total mass. The nebular hypothesis couldn't possibly be correct, else the sun would presently be rotating a hundred times faster than it does now (once every 27 days) in order to conserve and distribute the angular momentum of the system correctly. Sir James Jeans and Sir Harold Jeffreys then revived a 1749 proposal of Count Buffon known as "the collision hypothesis." A passing star was supposed to have pulled of

giant tongues of gaseous matter from the sun. These streamers then presumably broke into small chunks called "planetesimals." But, calculations showed that a passing star would pull off interior gases from the sun as hot as a million degrees Centigrade and these gases would surely disperse into space and not coalesce. Besides, stars are very far apart---the vastness of space makes the close encounters of two stars absurdly rare--in 14 billion years such events would be expected to have happened only once or twice.(Ref. 3). More recently cold accretionary theories for star and solar system formation have been attempted after the discovery that "empty" space contains considerable hydrogen, helium and dust. The dust resembles terrestrial compounds---silicon compounds, iron oxides, ice crystals, and even some organic molecules. So why not imagine the condensation of a "proto-sun" eventually collapsing under the pull of gravity, heating and eventually igniting in the now-familiar nuclear burning process by which hydrogen is compacted to form helium with the release of vast amounts of energy? The gases of space end up mostly in the sun, somehow, and the dust particles in the terrestrial planets by some kind of wondrous separation mechanism. Chemist Harold Urey, physicist W.A. Fowler, and astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle attempted to make this model workable by suggesting plasmas and magnetic coupling to explain how the sun's originally high angular momentum was transferred to the planets. Unfortunately there is no reason for molecules of gas and dust in space to stick together, congeal and cluster under the influence of random, disorderly collisions, the extremely weak force of gravity and the inexorable tendency to disorder dictated by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. There are many other problems that remain unsolved mysteries to this day, for example, one would expect as much as a third of the solar systems mass to reside in the planets and there are puzzling special problems with respect to the distribution of the planets, orbital inclinations and with many of the solar system's 34 moons.

Sun and Planets to Scale Many current textbooks (Ref. 4, 5) these days do assume a "cold accretionary process" for the origin of the earth, as opposed to the hot flaming gaseous atmosphere, molten surfaces and erupting volcanoes of primeval earth depicted in the textbooks of a generation ago. This of course is much closer to what the Apostle Peter tells us about the origin of the earth in his second epistle, in agreement with Genesis 1:1 and Psalm 104:

"...by the word of the Lord heavens were held together long ago, and an earth (formed) out of water and by means of water ..." (Ref. 6). The fact remains that no satisfactory naturalistic explanation for the solar system has been found. For the benefit of ambitious young scientists who might want to try, any successful theory will need to take into account the following unusual features of our solar system:

The planets all revolve around the sun in the same direction in elliptical (nearly circular) orbits, and most of their moons revolve in the same direction. Should not we expect to find the planets revolve more randomly? The planets (except Uranus and Venus) all rotate on their axes in the same direction as their revolution around the sun. The planets all lie more or less in the same plane as if formed from a disk. The distance of each planet from the sun is roughly twice as far as that of the next planet closer to the sun. (This is known as the Titius-Bode rule). According to the Titius-Bode rule a large planet ought to exist between Mars and Jupiter. Instead this is the location of the asteroid belt, which suggests there was originally a planet at that location. Perhaps this planet exploded in a disaster about 3 million years ago in atomic time. In dynamical time this may correspond to the time of the Flood of Noah. Extensive cratering of the terrestrial planets and moons could have been result. A planetary breakup may be the origin of the comets. (Ref. 7). The sun has 99.9 of the total mass of the solar system, but 99% of the total angular momentum is concentrated in the larger planets. Unlike the planets in relation to the sun, moons revolving about their planets carry less angular momentum than the planet. Compared to the sun, planets rotate on their axes faster than the sun for their densities. The sun is 99% hydrogen and helium; the terrestrial planets on the other hand are made of 90% iron, oxygen, silicon, and magnesium. How did this happen? The planets fall into two groups: the terrestrial planets---Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars have densities about 4.5 to 5 times heavier than water, while the giants planets---Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune range from 0.7 to 1.7 as dense as water, i.e., they are largely or entirely gaseous as is the sun. Uranus rotates on its side, tilted over some 98 degrees. Its primary satellites and rings lie in its equatorial plane. Did some early catastrophe change the tilt of Uranus? Venus rotates in the opposite direction of its revolution about the sun (retrograde motion). A number of the moons in the solar system exhibit retrograde motion. (Ref. 8). There are special problems in accounting for the earth's magnetic field and its rapid decay with time. The magnetic field of the sun and sunspots are puzzling. The origin of the moon is cloaked in mystery. The moon is relatively large as moons go, but it has a density only one-third that of the earth. Some astronomers continue to study the possibility that the moon was torn loose from the earth

where the Pacific Ocean basin now exists. The moon has no atmosphere, but radar studies from lunar orbit and from the earth suggest there may be frozen water beneath the surface. Mars seems once to have had an atmosphere, an ocean and flowing water. Did some sort of catastrophe occur on Mars? Was there once life on Mars? Venus also appears to have undergone major changes and may have once had flowing water. The Venusian atmospheric pressure is currently 100 times higher than that of earth and the surface temperature that of molten lead (800 degrees F).

Left to Right: Sun, Mercury Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

Secular science has lost much of its luster in recent years as more and more people have seen that purely materialistic, naturalistic explanations for the origin of the universe and of life are almost all bankrupt. A number of outstanding, competent scientists who are also Christians are calling clear attention these days to the sheer impossibility of a universe coming into existence by time plus chance, by any combination of natural processes, apart from the work of an outside Designer, Architect and Master Craftsman. (Ref. 9). See The Limits of Science. Genesis One, plainly read, declares that the earth was formed on Day One of creation week and the sun, moon, stars and planets all on Day Four. This notion is considered ludicrous to virtually all of today's secular scientists, yet Genesis is as fully authoritative as any other book of Holy Writ and invariable sound in the long run when addressing subjects that bear on scientific discovery. The authority of Genesis and the rest of the Bible rests on the integrity and authority of Jesus Christ. So central is the earth in the Biblical model of creation that intriguing models of Geocentricity are still proposed by some competent scientists who take Genesis seriously (Ref. 10). Of course it is difficult to make a convincing case for earth being at the center of the physical universe based solely on modern astronomy. But as far as theology is concerned, earth is the one unique planet where the Son of God chose to become a man. Earth was where He chose to redeem mankind by His death on a cross. In that cross he "reconciled all things to himself" (Col. 1:19, 20)---thereby undoing evil not only on earth but also everywhere else it may exist in the cosmos and among the angels. The account of creation given in Genesis One very much suggests the observer is a man standing on the earth while the events of creation week are taking place. Finally the Son of God has chosen to reign from Jerusalem over a restored earth and

from the satellite city, New Jerusalem, over an entirely renewed creation---new heavens and a new earth. The Biblical view of the universe is that it consists of a physical, material world and an unseen but very real spiritual world. The spiritual realm is commonly referred to as "the heavenlies" in the Bible---the Bible does not use the term "supernatural." The heavenlies are inhabited by "heavenly hosts," that is by angels. From the New Testament letter to the Hebrews we learn that the physical creation, which we see and touch has its source in unseen, invisible things: "Now faith is the assurance (hupostasis = "to stand under", i.e., support, foundation) of things not seen. For by faith the men of old gained divine approval. By faith we understand that the world (aionos = ages, or world) was created (katartizo = to fit, or render complete) by the word (rhemati = the oracles, sayings, or spoken utterances) of God, so that what is seen came into being out of that which is unseen." (Hebrews 11:3) The physical world, the material realm, is perfectly real and solid (not maya, or illusion, as Hinduism supposes), but it is the world of the fading, the transitory, the impermanent, and the perishable. The Biblical view is in some ways similar to the Greek (Platonic) idea of invisible ideas and archetypes which produces resulting forms in the physical world. But there are important differences of course between the Greek and Hebrew world-views. The entire creation we live in is spoken of in the Bible as the "old creation," which of course contrasts that creation with a later "new creation." Something has gone wrong in the old creation producing death and decay, corruption and disintegration. The old creation is now a ruined creation. Evil has disturbed our universe, interfering with both the realm of the spirit and realm of the physical---which includes disruptions in the laws of physics which have taken place since the Seventh Day of God's work in creation. Evil in the universe has damaged the original close and harmonious coupling between the spiritual and material dimensions of existence. What we now see and observe and experience is not the creation as it was finished at the end of the sixth day, but an aging, dying creation. When any one of us chooses to know God through faith in Jesus His Son, God responds by making us members of a new human race, headed by His Son, Jesus, the Last Adam. He has prepared a place for us to live in forever-a new creation: "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 5:6-8) Even if we succeed in mapping the physical universe, we are at a loss when it comes to measuring coordinates of time and space in the heavenly realm. The spiritual world is another dimension of reality (not a mere extension of the physical world into more than four dimensions). The spiritual world permeates the physical world and that means that

"heaven" is all around us and within us---not far away beyond the most remote galaxy at the edge of space. See Time and Eternity According to Genesis, God first created space, time and matter on the First Day. Then He created light (energy). These four, basic, constituent "elements" were then used to construct a universe. The physical universe was molded, formed fashioned and filled during six days. The earth was formed in the midst of the primal waters on the First Day---the sun, moon and stars were not fashioned until Day Four. Those who suggest otherwise must force Biblical interpretation well beyond all reasonable bounds (Ref. 11). Creation week was a unique, never-to-be-repeated sequence of events during which "time" the ordinary laws of physics as we know them now were suspended. Only when God's creative work was finished was the universe set in motion as a dynamical system. How God does things almost always escapes our ability to discover (Ref. 12). This is especially true of creation week-naturalistic explanations for the solar system can't even begin to retrace God's artisanship in creation. See especially The Uniqueness of Creation Week. Catastrophes affecting the creation evidently occurred some time after the end of creation week---but not before because of the statement of Genesis 1:31---the older "gap theory" proposing a catastrophe between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2 has been well refuted by Hebrew scholars in recent years. Disasters affecting the solar system could have occurred in connection with the fall of the angels, or could be related somehow to the fall of man and the resultant "curse" on the earth. The Second Law of Thermodynamics and radioactive decay were probably not operative in the universe until after the fall. The angels have a role in the government of nature (Heb. 2:5), so the fall of one third of God's angels may have had major consequences in the way nature has operated ever since. See The Ruin of Creation In a subsequent article we will examine the geologic history of the earth and show how early core meltdown, the Flood of Noah and continental drift may have been set in motion by disruptions in nature associated with the fall of man and the angels. Catastrophism is now back in vogue in secular science, and a biblical world-view certainly makes rooms for disasters. See Questions Concerning the Early History of the Earth. In reconsidering the creation of the earth, the solar system and the rest of the vast universe a good place to begin is to reflect in awe with the Psalmist of old who penned this words as inspired by the Holy Spirit:

Psalm 104
A Psalm about Creation 1 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, 2 who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent, 3 who hast laid the beams of thy chambers on the waters, who makest the clouds thy chariot, who ridest on the wings of the wind, 4 who makest the winds thy messengers, fire and flame thy ministers. 5 Thou didst set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken. 6 Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. 7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the sound of thy thunder they took to flight. 8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which thou didst appoint for them. 9 Thou didst set a bound which they should not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. 10 Thou makest springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, 11 they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst. 12 By them the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches. 13 From thy lofty abode thou waterest the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy work. 14 Thou dost cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, 15 and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart. 16 The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon which he planted. 17 In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. 18 The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the badgers.

19 Thou hast made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. 20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep forth. 21 The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. 22 When the sun rises, they get them away and lie down in their dens. 23 Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until the evening. 24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy creatures. 25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teems with things innumerable, living things both small and great. 26 There go the ships, and Leviathan which thou didst form to sport in it. 27 These all look to thee, to give them their food in due season. 28 When thou givest to them, they gather it up; when thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good things. 29 When thou hidest thy face, they are dismayed; when thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 30 When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground. 31 May the glory of the LORD endure for ever, may the LORD rejoice in his works, 32 who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! 33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. 34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD. 35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD! Note: Verse 6 is not referring to the Flood of Noah, but refers to the formation of the earth out of water during creation week, Gen. 1:9-10, Ps. 36:6, 2 Peter 3:5. Not all Bible scholars agree with me on this point, but most all creationist scholars do. lambert@ldolphin.org I send out periodic Bible-study newsletters. They are archived on my web site.

Planets
From our small world we have gazed upon the cosmic ocean for thousands of years. Ancient astronomers observed points of light that appeared to move among the stars. Select a Solar System body to learn more.

Our galaxy - the Milky Way - is a spiral galaxy with arms extending from the center like a pinwheel. Our solar system is in the Orion arm of the Milky Way. Our Sun is one of about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. And our galaxy is just one of roughly 100 billion in the visible universe.

Solar System Scoreboard Comets:

Compare the Planets

More Select a planet name from each column to compare their sizes.

3,114

Orbiting spacecraft such as SOHO have raised this tally in recent years by catching the comets as they plunge toward the Sun - and sometimes vaporize. Scientists estimate there could be as many as 1,000,000,000 comets held in the gravitational grip of the Sun.

Planets

Dwarf Planets

Moons

Asteroids

Comets

Earth

Mars

DIAMETER 12742 km RATIO 1.88 km 1 km 6779 km

References USGS Astrogeology: Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature - Planetary Body Names and Discoverers Solar System Dynamics - Planetary Satellite Discovery Circumstances

Planets:

The planet count in our solar system has gone as high as 15 before new discoveries prompted a fine tuning of the definition of a planet. The most recent change was in 2006 when scientists reclassified Pluto as a new kind of object - a dwarf planet.

Planets

Dwarf Planets

Moons

Asteroids

Comets

Dwarf Planets: 5

This new class of worlds helps us categorize objects that orbit the Sun but aren't quite the same as the rocky planets and gas giants in our solar system. There could be hundreds more of these small worlds far out there waiting to be discovered.

Planets

Dwarf Planets

Moons

Asteroids

Comets

Moons: 169

This count includes only the moons orbiting the eight planets in our solar system. It is likely there are more moons orbiting the giant planets of our solar system and there are moons orbiting around dwarf planets and asteroids.

Planets

Dwarf Planets

Moons

Asteroids

Comets

Solar System Scoreboard Asteroids: 569,585

New asteroids are discovered on an almost daily basis. It is estimated that the mineral wealth of the asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter is about $100,000,000 for every person on Earth.

Planets

Dwarf Planets

Moons

Asteroids

Comets

Comets: 3,114

Orbiting spacecraft such as SOHO have raised this tally in recent years by catching the comets as they plunge toward the Sun - and sometimes vaporize. Scientists estimate there could be as many as 1,000,000,000 comets held in the gravitational grip of the Sun.

Planets in the Solar System

by FRASER CAI N on JULY 10, 2008

Lets run through the entire Solar System, and learn about all the planets in the Solar System. Each planet is a link to a whole section about that planet, so you can learn more if you like. Enjoy the Solar System tour. Mercury As you travel outward from the Sun, Mercury is the closest planet. It orbits the Sun at an average distance of 58 million km. Mercury is airless, and so without any significant atmosphere to hold in the heat, it has dramatic temperature differences. The side that faces the Sun experiences temperatures as high as 420 C, and then the side in shadow goes down to -173 C. Mercury is also the smallest planet in the Solar System, measuring just 4879 km across at its equator. Mercury has only been visited two times by spacecraft. The first was Mariner 10, back in the mid 1970s. It wasnt until 2008 that another spacecraft from Earth made a close flyby of Mercury, taking new images of its surface. Venus Venus is the second planet in the Solar System, and its an almost virtual twin of Earth in terms of size and mass. Venus orbits at an average distance of 108 million km, and completes an orbit around the Sun every 224 days. Apart from the size, though, Venus is very different from Earth. It has an extremely thick atmosphere made almost entirely of carbon dioxide that cloaks the planet and helps heat it up to 460 C. If you could stand on the surface of Venus, you would experience

92 times the pressure of Earths atmosphere, with incredibly high temperatures, and poisonous clouds of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid rain. Several spacecraft have visited Venus, and a few landers have actually made it down to the surface to send back images of its hellish landscape. Even though there were made of metal, these landers only survived a few hours at best. Earth Earth is our home; the third planet from the Sun. It orbits the Sun at an average distance of 150 million km. Earth is the only planet in the Solar System known to support life. This is because our atmosphere keeps the planet warm from the vacuum of space, but its not so thick that we have a runaway greenhouse effect. The Earth has a solid core of iron surrounded by a liquid outer core that generates a magnetic field that also helps protect life on Earth from the radiation of space. No planet in the Solar System has been studied as well as Earth, both on the ground and from space. Thousands of spacecraft have been launched to study the planet, measuring its atmosphere, land masses, vegetation, water, and human impact. Earth has only a single moon the Moon. Mars The 4th planet from the Sun is Mars, the second smallest planet in the Solar System. It orbits the Sun at an distance of 228 million km. You might think Mars is large, but its a tiny world, with about half the diameter of Earth, and just 1/10th the Mass. If you could stand on the surface of Mars, youd experience about 1/3rd Earths gravity. Mars has almost no atmosphere to help trap heat from the Sun, and so temperatures can plunge below -140 C in the Martian winter. Even at the height of summer, temperatures can get up to 20 C in the day just barely shirt sleeve weather. Mars has been heavily studied by spacecraft. There are rovers and landers on the surface, and orbiters flying overhead. Its probably the likeliest place to search for life in the Solar System. Mars has two tiny asteroid-sized moons: Phobos and Deimos. Jupiter Mighty Jupiter is the biggest planet in our Solar System. Its so large, in fact, that it has 2.5 times the mass of all the rest of the planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter orbits from the Sun at an average distance of 779 million km. Its diameter at the equator is 142,984 km across; you could fit 11 Earths side by side and still have a little room. Jupiter is almost entirely made up of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of other elements. Jupiter has been visited by several spacecraft, including NASAs Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft; Cassini and New Horizons arrived more recently. Only the Galileo spacecraft has ever gone into

orbit around Jupiter, and it was crashed into the planet in 2003 to prevent it from contaminating one of Jupiters icy moons. Jupiter has the most moons in the Solar System it has 63 moons at last count. Saturn Saturn is the 6th planet from the Sun, and the 2nd largest planet in the Solar System. It orbits the Sun at an average distance of 1.4 billion km. Saturn measures 120,000 km across; only a little less than Jupiter. But Saturn has much less mass, and do it has a low density. In fact, if you had a pool large enough, Saturn would float! Of course, the most amazing feature of Saturn is its rings. These are made of particles of ice ranging in size from a grains of sand to the size of a car. Some scientists think the rings are only a few hundred million years old, while others think they could be as old as the Solar System itself. Saturn has been visited by spacecraft 4 times: Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and 2 were just flybys, but Cassini has actually gone into orbit around Saturn and has captured thousands of images of the planet and its moons. And speaking of moons, Saturn has a total of 60 moons discovered (so far). Uranus Next comes Uranus, the 7th planet from the Sun. It orbits the Sun at an average distance of 2.9 billion km. Uranus measures 51,000 km across, and is the 3rd largest planet in the Solar System. While all of the planets are tilted on their axes, Uranus is tilted over almost on its side. It has an axial tilt of 98. Uranus was the first planet to be discovered with a telescope; it was first recognized as a planet in 1781 by William Herschel. Only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, has ever visited Uranus up close. It passed by the planet in 1986, and captured the first close images. Uranus has 27 known moons. Neptune Neptune is the 8th and final planet in the Solar System, orbiting at an average distance of 4.5 billion km from the Sun. Its the 4th largest planet, measuring about 49,000 km across. It might not be as big as Jupiter, but its still 3.8 times larger than Earth you could fit 57 Earths inside Neptune. Neptune is the second planet discovered in modern times. It was discovered at the same time by both Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams.

Neptune has only ever been visited by one spacecraft, Voyager 2, which made a fly by in August, 1989. Neptune has 13 known moons. And those are the planets in the Solar System. Unfortunately, Pluto isnt a planet any more. If youd like more information on the Solar System, visit the Nine Planets, and Solar Views. We have recorded a whole series of podcasts about the Solar System at Astronomy Cast. Check them out here. This completes our Solar System tour.

This is an image of the solar system. Click on image for full size

Related links:
News from NSF: A Newly Discovered Solar System Contains Scaled-Down Versions of Saturn and Jupiter (2/14/08) Podcasts from NSF: Systemic Search Science books available along these topics...

The Solar System

The solar system is made up of the Sun, the 8 planetsand 5 dwarf planets and their 174 known moons,asteroids, comets, dust and gas. The planets, asteroids, and comets travel around the Sun, the center of our solar system.

Most of the bodies in the solar system travel around the Sun along nearly circular paths or orbits, and all the planets travel about the Sun in the anticlockwise direction (when viewed from above). Solar system formation began billions of years ago, when gases and dust began to come together to form the Sun, planets, and other bodies of the solar system. Last modified July 15, 2010 by Randy Russell.

Planets
By the current count of astronomers, our solar system includes 8 planets and 5 dwarf planets. The planets were formed during the process of solar system formation, when clumps began to form in the disk of gas and dusk rotating about our young Sun. Eventually, only the planets and other small bodies in the solar system remained. The four rocky planets at the center of the solar system Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, are known as the inner planets. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all composed primarily of gas and are known as the outer planets. Find out more about the planets through the links below. Please help us pilot test our new "Test Your Knowledge" tool on Windows to the Universe! Just go to the Earth weather page and click "Test Your Knowledge" in the Member login box to the right. Then visit a few other pages in that section. When you are done, click "Test Your Knowledge" again. You will get a 10 question test in a pop-up window. When you are done, you get your score, and can see your answers. For those of you that are Windows to the Universe Members, your quiz results will be recorded in your MyW2U user area. Try it as many times as you like! When you are done, please provide us some feedback on a short survey athttps://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CSCFLVV.

This historic image is the first ever taken from a spacecraft in orbit about Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system. Taken on 3/29/2011 by MESSENGER, it shows numerous craters across the surface of the planet. Temperatures there can reach over 800F because Mercury is so close to the Sun and rotates so slowly. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury earlier in March 2011.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Instit

The uniquely red global surface of Mars is marked by many interesting features - some like those on the Earth and others strangely different. The reddish color is caused by rust (iron oxide) in the soil. Some of these features are; volcanoes, canyon systems,river beds, cratered terrain, anddune fields. This image shows a global mosaic of 102 Viking 1 Orbiter images of Mars taken in February, 1980.
Image courtesy of NASA.

Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system, is a little bigger than the Earth's Moon. Thesurface of the planet is covered with craters, like the Moon, but temperatures there can reach over 800F because Mercury is so close to the Sun and rotates so slowly. This picture was taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft in October 2008.
Image courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Neptune's atmosphere shows a striped pattern of clouds. This cloud pattern is very similar to that of Jupiter and Saturn. Neptune even has a Great Dark Spotsimilar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The Great Dark Spot of Neptune is thought to be a hole, similar to the hole in the ozone layer on Earth, in the methanecloud deck of Neptune.
Image courtesy of NASA

A view of the Earth as seen by theApollo 17 crew while traveling to the Moon on December 7, 1972. Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula are visible, and you can barely make out theAntarctic, shrouded in the heavycloud cover in the southern hemisphere. Arching cloud patterns show the presence ofweather fronts.
Image courtesy of NASA/Apollo 17

Have you ever seen the Southern or Northern Lights? Earth isn't the only planet that puts on these beautiful light shows, which are also called the "aurora". Aurora have been seen at both poles of Saturn, too, as well as at the poles of Jupiter. These "curtains of light" sometimes rise 1,200 miles (2,000 km) above the cloud topsnear Saturn's poles. The Hubble Space Telescope took this picture in 2004.
Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, J. Clarke (Boston University), and Z. Levay (STScI)

This picture shows the sizes of the original three dwarf planets (Pluto, Ceres, and Eris) as compared to Earth. It also shows Pluto's large moon Charon (and its two small moons Nix and Hydra) and Eris's moon Dysnomia to scale. None of the distances between objects in this image are to scale. Click on image for full size Images courtesy of NASA, ESA, JPL, and A. Feild (STScI).

Related links:
Ceres Pluto Haumea Makemake Eris What is a planet? Sizes of Earth, Luna, and the First Five Dwarf Planets The Poles of the Dwarf Planets

Dwarf Planets
In 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved a new classification scheme for planets and smaller objects in our Solar System. Their scheme includes three classes of objects: "small solar system bodies" (including most asteroids and comets), the much larger planets (including Earth, Jupiter, and so on), and the new category of in-between sized "dwarf planets". There are currently five official dwarf planets. Pluto, formerly the smallest of the nine "traditional" planets, was demoted to dwarf planet status. Ceres, the largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, was also declared a dwarf planet. The three other (for now!) dwarf planets are Eris, Makemake, andHaumea. Pluto, Makemake, and Haumea orbit the Sun on the frozen fringes of our Solar System in the Kuiper Belt. Eris, also a Trans-Neptunian Object, is even further from the Sun. What's the difference between regular planets and dwarf planets? As you might guess, it's partly an issue of size, with dwarf planets being smaller. But just how big does a planet need to be to become a fullfledged planet instead of a dwarf? You might think the minimum size requirement is arbitrary, but the size cutoff is actually based on other properties of the object and its history in the Solar System. Both planets and dwarf planets orbit the Sun, not other planets (in which case we call them moons). Both must be large enough that their own gravity pulls them into the shapes of spheres; this rules out numerous smaller bodies like most asteroids, many of which have irregular shapes. Planets clear smaller objects out of their orbitsby sucking the small bodies into themselves or flinging them out of orbit. Dwarf planets, with their weaker gravities, are unable to clear out their orbits. Though there are just five dwarf planets now, their number is expected to grow. Scientists estimate there may be 70 dwarf planets amongst outer solar system objects that have been discovered already. Since we don't know the actual sizes or shapes of many of the objects we've found (because they are so far away), we can't yet determine whether they are actually dwarf planets or not. More observations and better telescopes will help us determine which other objects are dwarf planets. Astronomers speculate that there may be 200 or so dwarf planets out through the distance of the Kuiper Belt, an icy band of frozen planetoids on the edge of our Solar System. Last modified June 9, 2009 by Randy Russell.

Galileo image of Gaspra (29 October 1991) Click on image for full size NASA/JPL

Related links:
Table of Asteroids Asteroid Images Asteroid News

Asteroids
Asteroids are small bodies that are believed to be left over from the beginning of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. They are rocky objects with round or irregular shapes up to several hundred km across, but most are much smaller. More than 100,000 asteroids lie in a belt between Mars and Jupiter.These asteroids lie in a location in the solar system where there seems to be a jump in the spacing between the planets. Scientists think that this debris may be the remains of an early planet, which broke up early in the solar system. Several thousand of the largest asteroids in this belt have been given names. The chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth are very small! But some do come close to Earth, like Hermes (closest approach of 777,000 km).

This bright meteor, seen lighting up some clouds, was part of the Leonid Meteor Shower in November 1998. Click on image for full size Courtesy of Lorenzo Lovato of Imola, Italy

Related links:
Meteor Showers Geologists Discover New Way of Estimating Size and Frequency of Meteorite Impacts

Meteors
Meteors are streaks of light, usually lasting just a few seconds, which people occasionally see in the night sky. They are sometimes called "shooting stars" or "falling stars", though they are not stars at all. Meteors are caused by the entry of small pieces of rock, dust, or metal from space into theatmosphere at extremely high speeds. These particles, called "meteoroids" when they are floating around in space (think of very small asteroids), are traveling at incredible speeds of tens of kilometers per second (tens of thousands of miles per hour) when they streak into the atmosphere. The incredible pressure meteoroids experience when they collide with Earth's atmosphere shatters them, transferring energy to atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, which then release the energy by glowing. This glow produces the bright trails of lightin the sky we see as meteors. Most meteoroid particles are quite small, ranging in size from a grain of sand to a pea-sized pebble. Almost all of them disintegrate in the atmospherelong before reaching the ground. Very rarely, a larger meteoroid actually survives to strike the ground, creating ameteor crater in a huge explosion. This explosion often vaporizes whatever solid material is left of the meteoroid after its fiery flight through the atmosphere. Sometimes, however, pieces of the meteoroid survive and are found in the crater or nearby. These chunks of rock or metal are called meteorites. Meteors are not the same thing as comets. Meteors appear briefly as they streak through the sky. Comets are much larger objects that are actually still out in space. Comets can form tails, and though they do change position from night to night, they don't move fast enough for the eye to notice; they seem to hang in place in the sky. There is a connection, though, between some comets and some meteors. Several

times each year Earth passes across the orbit of a comet, where dust and small bits of rock from the comet have been left behind. When this happens we can see many meteors in a single night; sometimes as many as 100 or more per hour! These events are called meteor showers. Especially bright meteors are called fireballs. Some fireballs are so bright that they can be seen in the daytime. It would be possible to see meteors above any planet that has an atmosphere. A camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured a picture of meteor in the sky above Mars in 2004! How can you remember whether something is a meteor, a meteoroid, or a meteorite? Here's how I do it! When they are out in space, like asteroids, they are called meteoroids. When they are streaking through theatmosphere as bright flashes of light, we call them meteors - which reminds me of meteorology, which is the science concerned with weather and the atmosphere. [Meteorology is not the science of meteors!] When they reach the ground, we call them meteorites - which reminds me of the stalactites and stalagmites that are found under the ground in caves. I hope that helps you remember too! Last modified April 29, 2008 by Becca Hatheway.

This is an image of Comet Kohoutek. Click on image for full size NASA

Related links:
Table of comets Comet Images Color a Comet!! Comet Missions Other web pages about comets Comet News Interactive comet animation

Comets
Not long ago, many people thought that comets were a sign that something bad was about to happen to them. People didn't understand how objects in the sky moved, so the sight of a comet must have been very disturbing. There are many historical records and works of art which record the appearance of comets and link them with terrible events such as wars or plagues. Now we know that comets are lumps of ice and dust that periodically come into the center of the solar system from somewhere in its outer reaches, and that some comets make repeated trips. When comets get close enough to the Sun, heat makes them start to evaporate. Jets of gas and dust form long tails that we can see from Earth. These tails can sometimes be millions of miles long. In 1985-1986, a spacecraft called Giotto visited the most famous comet, Halley, on Halley's most recent visit to the inner solar system. In 1994, comet Shoemaker-Levy became trapped by the gravity of Jupiter and plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere! In 1996 and 1997 we saw comet Hyakutake, and comet Hale-Bopp.Hale-Bopp was one of the brightest comets ever seen from Earth.Comet Linear was discovered in 1999 and made its closest approach of the Sun in July 2000. The Stardust spacecraft flew by Comet Wild 2in January 2004, collecting samples of the comet to return to Earth. The newest comet mission is Rosetta -- it will land on a comet namedChuryumov-Gerasimenko! Now scientists have identified a class of comets known as small comets (though they originally were just called snowballs from space!) Would you like build your own custom comet? If you would, check out our interactive comet animation!

Poles in Space
The areas around the North and South Poles of planets, moons, and even the Sun are often interesting and unusual places. We have discovered all sorts of unique behavior at these locations, while on some planets, the characteristics of the poles are similar to those of Earth. On some planets and moons, we still don't have observations from their poles so can only make educated guesses of what we expect to find there based on our scientific understanding of the celestial body. The links below provide an overview of what we know about the polar regions of many of the major bodies in the solar system. An important concept related to the poles of the planets is the amount of tilt of a planet's rotational axis relative to the plane of the ecliptic - the orbital plane in which the planets orbit the Sun. Planets with a large tilt have stronger seasonal behavior than planets without a tilt.

This is a picture of the ice cap at the South Pole on Mars. This picture was shot from Mars orbit in 2000 by a spacecraft called Mars Global Surveyor. The white regions are ice. Most of the ice is water ice, but there is also a thinner layer of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) on top of the water ice. The ice cap is about 420 km (260 miles) across.
Image courtesy of NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems.

This image, made with radar data, shows the area around the North Pole of Mercury. There are some white circles or "doughnuts" in the picture. The white circles might be ice at the bottom of meteor craters. The picture is a few hundred kilometers across. It was made by the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
Image courtesy of NAIC - Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF (J. Harmon, P. Perrilat, and M. Slade).

Astronomers have discovered a bizarre, hexagon-shaped feature in the clouds of Saturn near the planet's North Pole. The feature was first seen in images returned by the Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s. The Cassini spacecrafttook this infrared image of the hexagon in 2006. Scientists think the feature is some sort of wave inSaturn's atmosphere about 75 kilometers beneath the planet's visible cloud tops.
Image courtesy NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Jupiter has aurora at its poles, as do several other planets that have magnetic fields. The aurora at Jupiter has a very interesting interaction with its moon, Io. Io'svolcanoes release lots of sulfur into a torus around Jupiter, which is embedded in Jupiter's magnetic field. Particles from this torus travel along Jupiter's magnetic field lines to the poles of Jupiter, causing auroral lights.
Image courtesy of J. Clarke (University of Michigan) and NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (November 26, 1998).

A sinuous glowing band of aurora(the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights) loops around the southern polar region in the distance as viewed by astronauts onboard the space shuttle on STS-039. Aurora are produced whenenergetic particles entering the Earth's atmosphere from space interact with atoms and moleculesin the atmosphere and release energy, emitted as light.
Courtesy of NASA, Astronaut Overmeyer and Dr. Hallinan

The Solar System

Sun Earth Moon

Mercury

Venus

Mars Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus Neptune Pluto

Solar System Discoveries

Who discovered the planets? For many of the planets in the solar system, we'll never know! Some planets are so bright in the sky that the first observers of these planets are lost in the distant past of early civilizations. Venus was carefully observed in early Mesoamerican cultures. The most distant planets were discovered in the last century, and we're now still discovering Dwarf planets, in our solar system and beyond. Visit the links here to find out more about what we know about the discovery of planets."

The uniquely red global surface of Mars is marked by many interesting features - some like those on the Earth and others strangely different. The reddish color is caused by rust (iron oxide) in the soil. Some of these features are; volcanoes, canyon systems,river beds, cratered terrain, anddune fields. This image shows a global mosaic of 102 Viking 1 Orbiter images of Mars taken in February, 1980.
Image courtesy of NASA.

Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system, is a little bigger than the Earth's Moon. Thesurface of the planet is covered with craters, like the Moon, but temperatures there can reach over 800F because Mercury is so close to the Sun and rotates so slowly. This picture was taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft in October 2008.
Image courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Neptune's atmosphere shows a striped pattern of clouds. This cloud pattern is very similar to that of Jupiter and Saturn. Neptune even has a Great Dark Spotsimilar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The Great Dark Spot of Neptune is thought to be a hole, similar to the hole in the ozone layer on Earth, in the methanecloud deck of Neptune.
Image courtesy of NASA

Have you ever seen the Southern or Northern Lights? Earth isn't the only planet that puts on these beautiful light shows, which are also called the "aurora". Aurora have been seen at both poles of Saturn, too, as well as at the poles of Jupiter. These "curtains of light" sometimes rise 1,200 miles (2,000 km) above the cloud topsnear Saturn's poles. The Hubble Space Telescope took this picture in 2004.
Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, J. Clarke (Boston University), and Z. Levay (STScI)

The tiny blue and purple dots in this picture show where Kuiper Belt Objects are. See how they are out past Neptune, near Pluto? Click on image for full size Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Related links:
Trans-Neptunian Objects The Oort Cloud

The Kuiper Belt

The outer edge of our Solar System is not empty. There are many, many huge spheres of ice and rock out nearPluto's orbit. Astronomers call this huge group of planetoids "Kuiper Belt Objects", or "KBOs" for short. The Kuiper Belt is a bit like the asteroid belt, but much farther from the Sun. Scientists think there are many thousands of KBOs. Astronomers have discovered several hundred so far. KBOs are gigantic balls of ice and rock. Some are small, some are tens of km across, and some are as big as the planet Pluto, and maybe larger! They orbit the Sun on the edge of the Solar System, near Pluto. They orbit between 30 to 50 AU (1 AU = Earth to Sun distance) from the Sun. Some astronomers think the Kuiper Belt goes out to 100 AU. KBOs take 200 years or longer to orbit the Sun! Some astronomers had a theory about the Kuiper Belt in the early 1900s. One of them was Gerard Kuiper. In 1951, Kuiper said that some kinds of comets might come from the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt was named after Gerard Kuiper. The first KBO was discovered in 1992. It was given the odd name "1992 QB1". The planet Pluto is also a Kuiper Belt Object. There are probably a bunch of other KBOs as big as Pluto or bigger that we haven't found yet. This is why astronomers are having a hard time deciding what a planet is. Is Pluto a planet? Are any of the other KBOs? Astronomers have found one object, called 2003 UB313 for now, that looks like it is bigger than Pluto. Some people are calling it the "tenth planet".

There are a couple of different kinds of KBOs. The different kinds have different orbits. Some have orbits like Pluto's. They are called "plutinos" (mini-Plutos). Some have orbits that are more like circles. They are called "cubewanos". There are other objects besides KBOs out on the edge of the Solar System. The Oort Cloud is much, muchfurther out than the Kuiper Belt. All of the objects on the frozen edge of the Solar System can be put in one big group. Astronomers call that group "Trans-Neptunian Objects" (TNOs) because they orbit further from the Sun than Neptune. KBOs and objects in the Oort Cloud are all Trans-Neptunian Objects. So are some other odd misfits that are in-between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, including Sedna and 2003 UB313. Some of the best known KBOs are Pluto, 1992 QB1, Orcus, Quaoar, Ixion, and Varuna. Strange names for strange objects! Last modified January 31, 2006 by Randy Russell.

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The Sun
The Sun is the closest star to Earth and is the center of our solar system. A giant, spinning ball of very hot gas, the Sun is fueled by nuclear fusion reactions. The light from the Sun heats our planet and makes life possible. The Sun is also an active star that displays sunspots, solar flares, erupting prominences, and coronal mass ejections. These phenomena, which are all related to the Sun's magnetic field, impact our near-Earth space environment and determine our "space weather". In about five billion years, the Sun will evolve into a Red Giant, and eventually, a White Dwarf star. Many cultures have had interesting myths about the Sun, in recognition of its importance to life on Earth. Please help us pilot test our new "Test Your Knowledge" tool on Windows to the Universe! Just go to the Earth weather page and click "Test Your Knowledge" in the Member login box to the right. Then visit a few other pages in that section. When you are done, click "Test Your Knowledge" again. You will get a 10 question test in a pop-up window. When you are done, you get your score, and can see your answers. For those of you that are Windows to the Universe Members, your quiz results will be recorded in your MyW2U user area. Try it as many times as you like! When you are done, please provide us some feedback on a short survey athttps://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CSCFLVV.

Astronomers use different wavelengths of light and otherelectromagnetic emissions as"windows" into different regions of the Sun. White light with awavelength between 400 and 700 nanometers (nm) shows thephotosphere, the visible "surface" of the Sun. Other wavelengths highlight different features of the Sun, such as its magnetic field, the chromosphere and the corona.
Composite image courtesy of Windows to the Universe using images from SOHO (NASA and ESA), NCAR/HAO/MLSO, Big Bear Solar Observatory, and SDO/AIA.

The outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere is the corona. The corona is very, very hot - about 1 million degrees! Glowing plasma, which is like magnetized gas, sometimes forms loops in the corona. Magnetic fields around sunspots make these loops, called coronal loops. The loops are huge - about 30 Earths would fit across them! A satellite named TRACE took this picture in November 1999.
Image courtesy of NASA/Trace Missi

For the Aztecs, who lived in central Mexico, Tonatiuh was aSun god. Aztecs believed that four suns had been created in four previous ages, and all of them had died at the end of each cosmic era. Tonatiuh was the fifth sun and the present era is still his. The carvings on this sunstone represent the four cycles of creation and destruction in the Aztec creation story. The skull at the center depicts the god Tonatiuh.
Image courtesy of Corel Corporation.

The "surface" of the Sun (thephotosphere) is covered with a "granulation pattern" caused by the convective flow of heat rising to the photosphere from the Sun's interior. The granulation pattern is similar to what you see when you look at the top of a pot of boiling oatmeal. Note how the hotter centers of granules bulge upward, while the cooler edges are sinking downward.
Image courtesy of Goran Scharmer and Mats G. Lfdahl of the Royal Swe

Sunspots don't look that big when you see them on the Sun (remember NEVER look directly at the Sun), but in fact they can be enormous! This composite image shows just how big sunspots can be, to scale with an image of Earth. Sunspots can be as big, or bigger, than Earth. The earliest written record of a sunspot observation was made by Chinese astronomers around 800 B.C.
Image courtesy of Windows to the Universe using images from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (sunspot image) and NASA (Earth image).

On 21 April, 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the launch of a filament from thesurface of the Sun. These are the most detailed images of the Sun ever taken. The images show light in the ultraviolet part of theelectromagnetic spectrum. The Sun is now entering another period of solar activity after several years of a relatively quiet Sun. Activity on the Sun varies on an cycle of about 11 years.
Image courtesy of NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory and AIA Consortium

Our Solar System

How much do you know about our solar system?

Quiz ID: Fun: Difficulty: Category: Created By:

#1 (2.5) (1.62) Science > Astronomy Jake

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#1 What is the third planet from the Sun?

Your Answer: 1 word, 5 letters.

#2 Which planet has a large red spot?

Earth Jupiter Saturn Pluto

#3 Saturn looks like it has rings.

True False

#4 What is the largest object in the asteroid belt?

Ganymede Charon Ceres Kuiper

#5 Pluto is a(n) ...?

Planet Dwarf Planet

Minor Planet Planetesimal Asteroid

#6 The highest mountain in the solar system is on Mars. What is its name?
Your Answer: 2 words, 11 letters.

#7 Which planet is smaller?

Uranus Neptune

#8 Our solar system is inside the Andromeda galaxy.

True False

#9 The sun's energy comes from nuclear fission.

True False

#10 As of 2009, how many people have walked on the moon?

2 8 12 63

Encyclopediasolar system

Origin of the Solar System

Besides explaining the birth of the sun, planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and comets, a theory of the origin of the solar system must explain the chemical and physical differences of the planets; their orbital regularities, i.e., why they lie almost on the same plane and revolve in the same direction in nearly circular orbits; and also account for the relative angular momentum of the sun and planets arising from their rotational and orbital motions.

The Nebular Hypothesis

The nebular hypothesis, developed by Immanuel Kant and given scientific form by P. S. Laplace at the end of the 18th cent., assumed that the solar system in its first state was a nebula, a hot, slowly rotating mass of rarefied matter, which gradually cooled and contracted, the rotation becoming more rapid, in turn giving the nebula a flattened, disklike shape. In time, rings of gaseous matter became separated from the outer part of the disk, until the diminished nebula at the center was surrounded by a series of rings. Out of the material of each ring a great ball was formed, which by shrinking eventually became a planet. The mass at the center of the system condensed to form the sun. The objections to this hypothesis were based on observations of angular momentum that conflicted with the theory.

The Planetesimal and Tidal Theories

Encounter or collision theories, in which a star passes close by or actually collides with the sun, try to explain the distribution of angular momentum. According to the planetesimal theory developed by T. C. Chamberlin and F. R. Moulton in the early part of the 20th cent., a star passed close to the sun. Huge tides were raised on the surface; some of this erupted matter was torn free and, by a cross-pull from the star, was thrust into elliptical orbits around the sun. The smaller masses quickly cooled to become solid bodies, called planetesimals. As their orbits crossed, the larger bodies grew by absorbing the planetesimals, thus becoming planets. The tidal theory, proposed by James Jeans and Harold Jeffreys in 1918, is a variation of the planetesimal concept: it suggests that a huge tidal wave, raised on the sun by a passing star, was drawn into a long filament and became detached from the principal mass. As the stream of gaseous material condensed, it separated into masses of various sizes, which, by further condensation, took the form of the planets. Serious objections against the encounter theories remain; the angular momentum problem is not fully explained.

Contemporary Theories
Contemporary theories return to a form of the nebular hypothesis to explain the transfer of momentum from the central mass to the outer material. The nebula is seen as a dense nucleus, or protosun, surrounded by a thin shell of gaseous matter extending to the edges of the solar system. According to the theory of the protoplanets proposed by Gerard P. Kuiper, the nebula ceased to rotate uniformly and, under the influence of turbulence and tidal action, broke into whirlpools of gas, called protoplanets, within the rotating mass. In time the protoplanets condensed to form the planets. Although Kuiper's theory allows for the distribution of angular momentum, it does not explain adequately the chemical and physical differences of the planets. Using a chemical approach, H. C. Urey has given evidence that the terrestrial planets were formed at low temperatures, less than 2,200F (1,200C). He proposed that the temperatures were high enough to drive off most of the lighter substances, e.g., hydrogen and helium, but low enough to allow for the condensation of heavier substances, e.g., iron and silica, into solid particles, or planetesimals. Eventually, the planetesimals pulled together into protoplanets, the temperature increased, and the metals formed a molten core. At the distances of the Jovian planets the methane, water, and ammonia were frozen, preventing the earthy materials from condensing into small solids and resulting in the different composition of these planets and their great size and low density. The discovery of extrasolar planetary systems, beginning with 51 Pegasi in 1995, have given planetary scientists pause. Because it was the only one known, all models of planetary systems were based on the characteristics of the solar systemseveral small planets close to the star, several large planets at greater distances, and nearly circular planetary orbits. However, all of the extrasolar planets are large, many much larger than Jupiter, the largest of the solar planets; many orbit their star at distances less than that of Mercury, the solar planet closest to the

Read more: solar system: Origin of the Solar System Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0861168.html#ixzz1covsZSkm

Astronomers discover new solar system

DR EMILY BALDWIN ASTRONOMY NOW Posted: 24 August 2010

Using ESO's sensitive HARP instrument, astronomers have discovered a solar system containing at least five planets, with indications that two more, including a hot, rocky world, might also be present. The planets orbit a Sun-like star called HD 10180, and their orbital distances follow a regular pattern similar to that in our own Solar System, with each planet roughly twice as far away from the Sun as the previous object. The planets also appear to track around their star on nearly circular orbits.

An artist's impression of the planetary system around Sun-like star HD 10180, which hosts five and possibly seven planets. The large crescent at the top of the image is the third planet from the Sun in the system (HD 10180d), which is comparable to the planet Neptune in mass. The two inner planets appear as silhouettes in transit across the bright disc of the star. The outer planets in the system appear in the background sky. Image: ESO/L. Calada.

We have found what is most likely the system with the most planets yet discovered, says Christophe Lovis, lead author of the paper reporting the result. This remarkable discovery also highlights the fact that we are now entering a new era in exoplanet research: the study of complex planetary systems and not just of individual planets. Studies of planetary motions in the new system reveal complex gravitational interactions between the planets and give us insights into the long-term evolution of the system. The astronomers made the discovery using the HARPS spectrograph attached to ESO's 3.6 metre telescope at La Silla in Chile, and made 190 individual measurements over six years. This enabled the team to detect the tiny motions of the star caused by the gravitational tug of the orbiting planets. Five strong signals indicate Neptune-sized planets, which orbit their Sun with "years" ranging from six to six hundred Earth days. We also have good reasons to believe that two other planets are present, reveals Lovis. While one of the suspects is likely a similar size to Saturn, orbiting the star in 2,200 days, the other could be a hot, rocky planet just 1.4 times the mass of the Earth. However, this planetary candidate orbits very close to the star in just 1.18 days, and its influence on the parent star is difficult to measure. Systems of low-mass planets like the one around HD 10180 appear to be quite common, but their formation history remains a puzzle, says Lovis. To date, astronomers know of fifteen solar systems with at least three planets, but HD 10180 is unique in having its brood of (at least) five planets orbiting within the innermost region of its system all within a distance equivalent to that of Mars in our own Solar System. As more and more exoplanet systems are identified especially with the bounty of planets anticipated from the Kepler mission scientists will become better equipped to understand how multiple planet systems form.