What caused the nebula to collapse?

What caused the nebula to collapse?

Nebulae are made of dust and gases—mostly hydrogen and helium. The dust and gases in a nebula are very spread out, but gravity can slowly begin to pull together clumps of dust and gas. Eventually, the clump of dust and gas gets so big that it collapses from its own gravity.

What do scientists think caused the nebula to collapse?

For decades, scientists have suspected a star explosion called a supernova helped trigger our solar system’s formation. In particular, the shock wave from the explosion is thought to have compressed parts of the nebula, causing these regions to collapse.

What first causes a nebula to shrink?

Gravity is the force that drives condensation. As a ball of dust and gas contracts under its own gravity, it begins to shrink and its core begins collapsing faster and faster. This causes the core to heat up and to rotate.

What two forces caused the solar nebula to develop into the sun?

Energy from collisions and pressure from gravity caused the center of the solar nebula to become hotter and denser.

What happens when a nebula begins to contract?

As the nebula contracts, whatever initial tumbling/rotational motion is increased to conserve angular momentum (just like when a spinning figure skater brings in their arms). The nebula flattens into a disk. Gravitational contraction also causes the pressure to increase which causes the cloud to heat up.

What causes the flattening of the solar nebula into a disk?

Why did the solar nebula flatten into a disk? The force of gravity from the planets pulled the material downward into a flat disk. It flattened as a natural consequence of collisions between particles in the spinning nebula, changing random motions into more orderly ones.

How and why did the nebula rotation rate change as it was collapsing?

Initially, most of the motions of the cloud particles were random, yet the nebula had a net rotation. As collapse proceeded, the rotation speed of the cloud was gradually increasing due to conservation of angular momentum. Collisions between particles converted this energy into heat (random motions).

What do you call the place where a nebula collapses?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space, sometimes referred to as “stellar nurseries” or “star-forming regions”, collapse and form stars.

What force caused the solar nebula to contract?

gravity
I. Contraction of insterstellar cloud. Solar system formed about 4.6 billion year ago, when gravity pulled together low-density cloud of interstellar gas and dust (called a nebula)(movie).

What causes a nebula to collapse in space?

Some astronomers think that a gravitational or magnetic disturbance causes the nebula to collapse. As the gases collect, they lose potential energy, which results in an increase in temperature. As the collapse continues, the temperature increases.

What makes up the dust in a Nebula?

Those tiny dots are newly-formed stars! Nebulae are made of dust and gases—mostly hydrogen and helium. The dust and gases in a nebula are very spread out, but gravity can slowly begin to pull together clumps of dust and gas. As these clumps get bigger and bigger, their gravity gets stronger and stronger.

When did our Solar System form from a Nebula?

The solar nebula theory describes how our solar system formed from a nebula about 4.5 billion years ago. This lesson will cover the aspects of the theory. Afterwards, you will have a chance to complete a quiz to test your knowledge.

When does the core of a cloud collapse?

The core of the cloud collapses faster than the outer parts, and the cloud begins to rotate faster and faster to conserve angular momentum. When the core reaches a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Kelvin, the molecules of hydrogen gas break apart into hydrogen atoms.