Formation of the solar system

About 5 billion years ago, our solar system began as a massive, slowly spinning cloud of hydrogen and helium gas, and dust. This cloud stretched several light-years across, but gravity gradually pulled it together.

As the cloud shrank, it started to spin faster, eventually flattening into a disc with the sun at its center. The surrounding gas and dust began clumping together, forming protoplanets. Over time, these protoplanets grew larger, absorbing more material and becoming the planets we see today.

This process explains why all planets orbit the sun in the same direction and on nearly the same plane—a direct result of the original rotating disc of material!

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