• Question: how was the world made

    Asked by robyn to Stephen, Lauren, Joseph, Eoin, Colm on 14 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Lauren Mc Keown

      Lauren Mc Keown answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      It is most likely that at the beginning of the formation of the Solar system, gas and dust and rocks were swirling around in the Solar nebula (cloud of all this material). The material became squished into a disc when the sun formed at the centre, the energy involved pushed all of the swirling, infalling material outwards. Heavier materials like rocks and metals stayed closer to the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars), while lighter gases and ice were pushed to the outer regions of the Solar System (the gas planets/comets, etc). So Earth, with its rocky and molten composition was formed close to the Sun. Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago in this nebula. It is thought that Earth is molten (contains magma beneath the crust) due to volcanic activity or collision with other objects and that the crust formed as it cooled.

    • Photo: Stephen Scully

      Stephen Scully answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Where our solar system is now, there used to be a lot of dust, rocks and other stuff floating around. All these things spun around the centre, those moving slower fell inwards and faster moved outwards. There were collisions which lead to some of the stuff “sticking” together. These then had a stronger pull than the smaller items and so attracted more and more stuff to them, they grew in size. Most of the stuff ended up in the centre creating the sun and in several other places large bodies formed, which we know as the planets.

      Our planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago from this cloud of stuff.

    • Photo: Eoin O Colgain

      Eoin O Colgain answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      There is an analogy here with water and surface tension.

      Imagine we have a jet of water, it breaks up into droplets, right? This is because water attracts itself and wants to break up into droplets. In the same way the planets form because matter attracts itself.

    • Photo: Joseph Roche

      Joseph Roche answered on 16 Nov 2013:

      Through a beautiful interplay of the laws of physics, especially gravity.

      THIS, did not happen:

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