Friday, 22 July 2011

Characteristics of Jovian Planets

According to the Solar Nebula hypothesis for the formation of the Solar System, the Solar system was nothing but a rotating mass of clouds, in the beginning. Primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, these clouds also had traces of heavier elements. As the speed of rotation of the cloud mass or nebula increased, heat and pressure began to develop within. This gradual build up of heat and pressure caused the nebula to explode. The center of the nebula, known as the protosun, was the region of highest temperature and the matter around this protosun was automatically reduced to the gaseous state. However, regions close the circumference of the nebula were cooler and it was here that matter was found in the condensed form.After the formation of the Solar System, the gravitational force of the sun gradually pulled the masses of higher density towards it due to which the planets made of rocks began to revolve in smaller orbits around the sun. The planets made of gaseous matter moved to orbits farther away from the sun. Revolving in their orbits around the sun gave the planets a spherical shape. The immense gravitational pull of the large gaseous planets attracted matter scattered around the solar system and this matter, both rocks particles and gases, began to revolve around these planets and thus the rings and many moons of these planets were formed.

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