AST101H1 Lecture Notes - Interstellar Cloud, Terrestrial Planet, Solar Wind

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Ian Shelton

Document Summary

In chapter 7 we discussed four features of our solar system and these features hold the key to testing any hypothesis that claims to explain the origin of the solar system. If the hypothesis fails to explain even one of the four features then it cannot be correct and if it successful explains all four we might reasonably assume it is on the right track. This theory can make predictions about other solar systems. 18th c scientists immanuel kant proposed that our solar system formed from the gravitational collapse of an interstellar cloud of gas. 40 years later pierre simon laplace put forth the same idea independently because an interstellar cloud is usually called a nebula, their idea became known as the nebula hypothesis. The nebula hypothesis remained popular throughout the 19th c. By the early 20th c scientist had found a few aspects of our solar system that the nebular hypothesis did not seem to explain well.