Indian History – A New Construct – 1.3 : Formation of Our Solar System
At first, our solar system was a, nebula, a molecular cloud in space. Mostly H and He gas and may be a few other elements. It was disturbed by a shock wave from an exploding supernova. This resulted in a compression of the gas, and in an increase in its rotational velocity. The centre of the cloud became hot and dense and the little clumps of matter that formed towards the edges were cold like ice. As the warm condensing particles stuck to each other and gathered mass, their gravity pulled other particles close to themselves.
The center of the nebula became the sun. Rocky planets formed closer to the sun and gaseous planets formed further away. The temperature at which rocky materials, of which the terrestrial planets are made of, such as Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Nickel, and Lead, can begin to form solid material, is much higher, than the outer temperatures at which the gaseous, icy, planets were formed.
“Currently, the theory that best explains all the evidence about the formation of the Earth’s moon is that the Earth was struck by a large object, possibly as large as Mars. This theory holds that sufficient debris was ejected from the Earth to form the Moon. Simulations of this scenario show that energy from such a collision produces a stream of vaporized rock from the impact. It is thought that the Moon formed from this cooled material.”
Because of its heat, the elements of the earth, separated (differentiated) into the molten iron core at the centre and the lighter silicate rock towards the surface.
“The Earth and Mars are examples of contiguous planets which did and did not differentiate early in their histories. The Earth has a well formed core, with a mantle of silicate rock and an outer crust. Earth has a magnetosphere, which is something which is generated in an active iron core. Mars, the “red planet” seems to have a lot of iron on the surface, a weak magnetosphere, and a small iron core. This suggests that Mars is weakly differentiated. The lack of differentiation may say something about how warm these planets were upon formation. Mars may have warmed too late in its history to fully differentiate, or Mars may not have as much of the radioactive material which keeps the Earth warm to start with.”
At this time the sun condensed to a point at which the fusion reactions of Hydrogen into Helium started and the sun started radiating intense energy. The Sun “turned on”. Even today we have smaller scale solar winds by which the sun throws material into the solar system, but not at the enormous rate at which this used to happen, in the beginning.
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Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
