Astronomy › Section J · Small bodies and the origin of the solar system › Topic J.5
Formation of the solar system
Comets, asteroids and meteorites are the leftover pieces of a 4.6-billion-year-old building project. Put together with the planets themselves, they let us reconstruct, step by step, how a spinning cloud of gas and dust became the Sun and its family.
In this topic
- Clues a theory must explain
- Motions, chemistry and ages
- The angular momentum puzzle
- Worked example: where did the spin go?
- Condensation and the frost line
- Worked example: a short-lived heat source
- Planetesimals and rocky planets
- Building the giant planets
- Clearing up the leftovers
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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