Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
There is a roughly 1% chance that Jupiter's gravity may make Mercury's orbit so eccentric as to cross Venus's orbit by this time, sending the inner Solar System into chaos. Other possible scenarios include Mercury colliding with the Sun, being ejected from the Solar System, or colliding with Venus or Earth. [103] [104] 3.5–4.5 billion
Pre-Solar System Billions of years before the formation of the Solar System Over 4.6 billion years ago (bya) Previous generations of stars live and die, injecting heavy elements into the interstellar medium out of which the Solar System formed. [15] ~ 50 million years before formation of the Solar System 4.6 bya
Later in the same year, Norman Lockyer observed the same line in the solar spectrum, and concluded that it was caused by an element in the Sun unknown on Earth. This element is helium , which currently comprises 23.8% of the mass in the solar photosphere .
This model posits that, 4.6 billion years ago, the Solar System was formed by the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud spanning several light-years. Many stars, including the Sun, were formed within this collapsing cloud. The gas that formed the Solar System was slightly more massive than the Sun itself.
In 1950 Jan Oort suggested the presence of a cometary reservoir in the outer limits of the Solar System, the Oort cloud, [109] and in 1951 Gerard Kuiper argued for an annular reservoir of comets between 40 and 100 astronomical units from the Sun having formed early in the Solar System's evolution, but he did not think that such a belt still ...
Planetary scientists have, for instance, struggled to explain how a major collision created the moon 4.35 billion years ago, at a time in the solar system’s history when most large celestial ...
The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us