Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The widely accepted modern variant of the nebular theory is the solar nebular disk model (SNDM) or solar nebular model. [1] It offered explanations for a variety of properties of the Solar System, including the nearly circular and coplanar orbits of the planets, and their motion in the same direction as the Sun's rotation.
The first step toward a theory of Solar System formation and evolution was the general acceptance of heliocentrism, which placed the Sun at the centre of the system and the Earth in orbit around it. This concept had been developed for millennia ( Aristarchus of Samos had suggested it as early as 250 BC), but was not widely accepted until the ...
French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes was the first to propose a model for the origin of the Solar System in his book The World, written from 1629 to 1633.. In his view, the universe was filled with vortices of swirling particles, and both the Sun and planets had condensed from a large vortex that had contracted, which he thought could explain the circular motion of the plane
Mercury's orbital anomaly observations led to searches for Vulcan, a planet interior of Mercury, but these attempts were quashed with Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity in 1915. [295] In the 20th century, humans began their space exploration around the Solar System, starting with placing telescopes in space since the 1960s. [296]
Vesta (radius 262.7 ± 0.1 km), the second-largest asteroid, appears to have a differentiated interior and therefore likely was once a dwarf planet, but it is no longer very round today. [74] Pallas (radius 255.5 ± 2 km ), the third-largest asteroid, appears never to have completed differentiation and likewise has an irregular shape.
It was proposed as a replacement for the Laplacian version of the nebular hypothesis that had prevailed since the 19th century. The hypothesis was based on the idea that a star passed close enough to the sun early in its life to cause tidal bulges to form on its surface, which along with the internal process that leads to solar prominences ...
A widely accepted theory of planet formation, the planetesimal hypothesis of Viktor Safronov, states that planets form from cosmic dust grains that collide and stick to form ever-larger bodies. Once a body reaches around a kilometer in size, its constituent grains can attract each other directly through mutual gravity , enormously aiding ...
Jupiter might have shaped the Solar System on its grand tack. In planetary astronomy, the grand tack hypothesis proposes that Jupiter formed at a distance of 3.5 AU from the Sun, then migrated inward to 1.5 AU, before reversing course due to capturing Saturn in an orbital resonance, eventually halting near its current orbit at 5.2 AU.