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Earth Science

The document summarizes four theories of planetary formation: 1) The Accretion theory which has issues explaining formation timelines and properties of gas giants. 2) The Protoplanet theory where planets form from 'planetary blobs' captured by stars, but cannot explain orbital properties. 3) The Capture theory where planets form from material dragged from a nearby protostar, but the slow solar rotation is not fully explained. 4) The Modern Nebular theory where planets originate from a disk formed from a collapsing gas and dust cloud, supported by observations of proto-planetary disks.

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83 views

Earth Science

The document summarizes four theories of planetary formation: 1) The Accretion theory which has issues explaining formation timelines and properties of gas giants. 2) The Protoplanet theory where planets form from 'planetary blobs' captured by stars, but cannot explain orbital properties. 3) The Capture theory where planets form from material dragged from a nearby protostar, but the slow solar rotation is not fully explained. 4) The Modern Nebular theory where planets originate from a disk formed from a collapsing gas and dust cloud, supported by observations of proto-planetary disks.

Uploaded by

rsbacolod
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Accretion theory

The Sun passes through a dense interstellar cloud and emerges surrounded by a dusty,
gaseous envelope.

The problem is that of getting the cloud to form the planets. The terrestrial planets can
form in a reasonable time, but the gaseous planets take far too long to form. The theory
does not explain satellites or Bode's law and is therefore considered the weakest of
those described here.

The Protoplanet theory


A dense interstellar cloud produces a cluster of stars. Dense regions in the cloud form
and coalesce; as the small blobs have random spins the resulting stars will have low
rotation rates. The planets are smaller blobs captured by the star.

The small blobs would have higher rotation than is seen in the planets of the Solar
System, but the theory accounts for this by having the 'planetary blobs' split into planets
and satellites. However, it is not clear how the planets came to be confined to a plane or
why their rotations are in the same sense.

The Capture theory


The Sun interacts with a nearby protostar, dragging a filament of material from the
protostar. The low rotation speed of the Sun is explained as being due to its formation
before the planets, the terrestrial planets are explained by collisions between the
protoplanets close to the Sun, and the giant planets and their satellites are explained as
condensations in the drawn out filament.

The Modern Laplacian theory


French astronomer and mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace first suggested in 1796
that the Sun and the planets formed in a rotating nebula which cooled and collapsed.
The theory argued that this nebula condensed into rings, which eventually formed the
planets and a central mass - the Sun. The slow spin of the Sun could not be explained.

The modern version assumes that the central condensation contains solid dust grains
which create drag in the gas as the centre condenses. Eventually, after the core has
been slowed, its temperature rises and the dust evaporates. The slowly rotating core
becomes the Sun. The planets form from the faster rotating cloud.

The Modern Nebular theory


The planets originate in a dense disk formed from material in the gas and dust cloud
that collapses to give us the Sun. The density of this disk had to be sufficient to allow
the formation of the planets and yet be thin enough for the residual matter to be blown
away by the Sun as its energy output increased.

In 1992 the Hubble Space Telescope obtained the first images of proto-planetary disks
in the Orion nebula. They are roughly on the same scale as the Solar System and lend
strong support to this theory.

Encounter Hypothesis:

One of the earliest theories for the formation of the planets was called the
encounter hypothesis. In this scenario, a rogue star passes close to the Sun
about   5   billion   years   ago.   Material,   in   the   form   of   hot   gas,   is   tidally
stripped from the Sun and the rogue star. This material fragments into
smaller lumps which form the planets. This hypothesis has the advantage
of explaining why the planets all revolve in the same direction (from the
encounter geometry) and also provides an explanation for why the inner
worlds are denser than the outer worlds.
However, there are two major problems for a theory of this type. One is 
that hot gas expands, not contracts. So lumps of hot gas would not form 
planets. The second is that encounters between stars are extremely rare, 
so rare as to be improbable in the lifetime of the Universe (15 billion 
years).

Nebular Hypothesis:

A second theory is called the nebular hypothesis. In this theory, the whole
Solar   System   starts   as   a   large   cloud   of   gas   that   contracts   under   self­
gravity. Conservation of angular momentum requires that a rotating disk
form with a large concentration at the center (the proto­Sun). Within the
disk, planets form.
While this theory incorporates more basic physics, there are several 
unsolved problems. For example, a majority of the angular momentum in 
the Solar System is held by the outer planets. For comparison, 99% of the 
Solar System's mass is in the Sun, but 99% of its angular momentum is in 
the planets. Another flaw is the mechanism from which the disk turns into
individual planets.

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