Astronomy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Astronomy - Essay Example And the solar system was created through a gaseous cloud. According to the book of (Ramsey, 1983) â€Å"The nebular hypothesis explains that the nebula slowly rotates, it gradually condensing and flattening due to gravity and eventually form the stars and planets.† It assumes that at one time the sun was a large mass of gas extending out beyond the farthest limits of what is now the entire solar system. The mass of hot gases was rotating slowly, and as the gases cooled and contracted, the mass began to rotate faster and faster until a ring separated from the main part. Its rotation eventually turned this region into a disk. Matter continued to fall toward the center of the solar nebula, making the central parts hotter. The sun was beginning to grow at the center of the disk. Are planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. Astronomers study of possible life in the universe, because life is more likely to develop on planets than in the extremes of stars and empty space. According to (Ramsey,1983) Astronomers have found that most young stars are surrounded by disks composed of dust and gas. Some of these disks show evidence of comet-like objects. For instance, â€Å"The disk around the star Fomalhaut, show an empty area around the star, or a stripe of empty space in the disk. Astronomers believe that dust in this area could be in the process of condensing into a planet.† The theory states that a disk of dust and gas collects around a star as the star forms. Bits of dust in the disk collide and stick together, forming larger and larger chunks of rock and ice. Farther out from the star (where the temperature is cooler), the gases in the disk freeze, adding to the mass available to form these chunks. The pieces of rock continue to collide, forming large objects called protoplanets. Four protoplanets grew close to the central sun. These were inner planets or (terrestrial) planets: Mercury, Venue, Earth and Mars. Four other