Solar System Formation

Read 14.3 Formation of the Solar System for a detailed summary of the process of solar system formation. This brings together many topics from previous chapters into a single cohesive narrative.
One surprising detail from the reading is that “it is difficult to explain the presence of water on Earth and Mars.” Watch the video Wait, Why didn’t the primordial earth have water?
Watch the video Did Asteroids Bring Water to Earth, which shows NASA experiments that are attempting to answer this question.
It is difficult to simulate and visualize the process of accretion, where millions of planetesimals collide and combine over time to build larger planets. But it turns out that my old favorite video game, Osmos, is really good at demonstrating the accretion of planets. Check out the video Solar System Formation with Osmos
Explore 14.4 Comparison with Other Planetary Systems to learn about exoplanets and how their characteristics, such as hot Jupiters and eccentric orbits, differ from those in our own solar system, providing insights into planetary migration and the abundance of terrestrial rocky planets in the galaxy.