Solar system formation. Artwork of rocks found in the protoplanetary disc of the newly-formed Sun in the early solar system. It is thought that the Sun (centre left) formed from a collapsing nebula around 4.6 billion years ago. The remaining dust and gas formed a rotating disc surrounding the newly-formed Sun. Slow gravitational attraction (accretion) of small particles formed these rocky asteroids (planetesimals). They in turn clumped together to form Earth-like planets or remained scattered like the present-day asteroid belt. The present-day asteroid belt is much more spread out,with average separations of 6 million kilometres | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / Van Ravenswaay, Detlev |
Taille de l’image : | 3780 px × 3780 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |