Our solar system began about 5 billion years ago. The Sun, planets and other solar system objects all formed at about the same time. The Sun and planets formed from a giant cloud of gas and dust. This was the solar nebula. The cloud contracted and began to spin. As it contracted, its temperature and pressure increased. The cloud spun faster, and formed into a disk. Scientists think the solar system at that time looked like these disk-shaped objects in the Orion Nebula (Figure Temperatures and pressures at the center of the cloud were extreme. It was so hot that nuclear fusion reactions began. In these reactions hydrogen fuses to make helium. Extreme amounts of energy are released. Our Sun became a star! Material in the disk surrounding the Sun collided. Small particles collided and became rocks. Rocks collided and became boulders. Eventually planets formed from the material (Figure 12.2). Dwarf plants, comets, and asteroids formed too (Figure 12.3). Material at a similar distances from the Sun collided together to form each of the planets. Earth grew from material in its part of space. Moons origin was completely different from Earths. Earth formed like the other planets. Different materials in its region of space collided. Eventually the material made a planet. All of the collisions caused Earth to heat up. Rock and metal melted. The molten material separated into layers. Gravity pulled the denser material into the center. The lighter elements rose to the surface (Figure 12.4). Because the material separated, Earths core is made mostly of iron. Earths crust is made mostly of lighter materials. In between the crust and the core is Earths mantle, made of solid rock. This model for how the Moon formed is the best fit of all of the data scientists have about the Moon. In the early solar system there was a lot of space debris. Asteroids flew around, sometimes striking the planets. An asteroid the size of Mars smashed into Earth. The huge amount of energy from the impact melted most of Earth. The asteroid melted too. Material from both Earth and the asteroid was thrown out into orbit. Over time, this material smashed together to form our Moon. The lunar surface is about 4.5 billion years old. This means that the collision happened about 70 million years after Earth formed. An atmosphere is the gases that surround a planet. The early Earth had no atmosphere. Conditions were so hot that gases were not stable. Earths first atmosphere was different from the current one. The gases came from two sources. Volcanoes spewed gases into the air. Comets carried in ices from outer space. These ices warmed and became gases. Nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and water vapor, or water in gas form, were in the first atmosphere (Figure 12.5). Take a look at the list of gases. Whats missing? The early atmosphere had almost no oxygen. Earths atmosphere slowly cooled. Once it was cooler, water vapor could condense. It changed back to its liquid form. Liquid water could fall to Earths surface as rain. Over millions of years water collected to form the oceans. Water began to cycle on Earth as water evaporated from the oceans and returned again as rainfall.
Output: After the sun formed, material at similar distances from the sun collided to form each of the