The Universe is an amazing thing. Trying to wrap your head around how our solar system came about and how planets rotate on the same paths for thousands and thousands of years while being hit by meteors, experiencing giant storms, and other obstacles is a difficult thing to do. There are plenty of aspects to a planet that makes them each unique, and it’s amazing that even with these differences, they’re all able to work as one to keep our galaxy working. All of our universe is made up of atoms and molecules that have somehow become planets, stars, etc that make up our galaxy. There are many theories trying to prove how our solar system was created, most of which you probably haven't heard of.
Catastrophe theory doesn’t necessarily mean everything formed in a disaster, but definitely in a less than usual way. An example of a catastrophe theory stated in the book, In Quest of the Universe, in 1745, “Buffon suggested that the comet pulled material out of the Sun to form the planets.” Comets were once seen as huge objects in the eyes of astronomers, but in recent years, this theory has been considered completely unrealistic since comets we have seen are much too small to affect the sun. If parts of the sun created our planets, these parts would slowly dissipate if taken away from the whole sun, and wouldn’t be able to form a whole planet.
Evolutionary theories all start with thinking about one idea and how, throughout time, different objects formed to create our current universe. There are many different beliefs of evolution and where our solar system came from, such as gas clouds that create a whirl pool, which could explain the counter-clockwise rotation of our planets. Isaac Newton started off with the idea that a gas cloud could form into a disk and create a gravitational pull. With this idea, another astronomer, Laplace, came up with a different theory. “Laplace found that such a rotating disk would break up into rings similar to the rings of Saturn. He suggested that perhaps these rings could form into the individual planets while the sun was coalescing from material in the center.” A more modern Evolutionary Theory is that the gas cloud had a different rotation throughout, the inner part of the cloud rotating faster than the outer part. This more closely related to Newton’s Laws. Once the cloud separates into its own rotation, they continue to rotate in different areas, and at different speeds. These then form planets. The speed of rotation of each of these formed planets then become either a solid or gaseous planet. Which also explains why all of our planets rotate in the same direction. As stated by nrao.edu “Most of the objects in our solar system, including the Sun, planets, and asteroids, all rotate counter-clockwise. This is due to the initial conditions in the cloud of gas and dust from which our solar system formed. As this gas and dust cloud began to collapse it also began to rotate. That rotation just happened to be in a counter-clockwise direction.”
All of our planets rotate around one big star, the sun. All nine of the plants rotate in the same direction around the sun. They all rotate on different axis’, and at different speeds, but the characteristics of each planet is what makes all of the different rotations work, and stay constant. In an early planetary system, planets usually bump into each other which will then determine its speed of rotation. When objects large enough hit a planet, it has the ability to change the speed at which the planet rotates. Each speed of rotation, the planets mass, size, and density all determine the path a planet takes around the sun. Which created our solar system and made it what it is.
These theories may explain how our solar system came about, some more realistic than others, but in the end, all of the planets work together to stay constant. If one planet’s rotation messes up, it can throw off our whole solar system. Our universe is a crazy place that will continually change, yet somehow remains the same.
