In the Beginning

The night sky is a magnificent sight to see. It is filled with stars and other celestial bodies. People throughout the centuries have given names to these objects, often giving them mystical meanings. We often wonder how this all began. There is more than one theory addressing this.

Our sun, Sol, is estimated to be around 4.5 billion years old. It contains about 99 percent of the entire mass of he solar system. It is a G class star, which places it in the middle as far as stars go. There are nine (or eight, depending on which camp you are in) planets, each in an elliptical orbit around the sun. There are four terrestrial and four Jovian planets that make the main eight planets. Pluto, the controversial planet, is considered a Kuiper Belt object, possibly captured by the sun’s gravitational force. Despite the different makeups of each of these objects, they all have common origins

The accretion theory holds that the solar system was formed from the solar nebula. This nebula separated from the interstellar medium around 7 billion years ago. As this nebula began to contract due to its own gravitational force, its momentum through space forced it to start spinning, creating a disk with a mass in the middle. This mass of matter eventually reached the temperature and pressure needed to start the