• Question: what was the first planet to be formed

    Asked by Liam.E to Julian, Jane, Hugh, Heather, Helen on 14 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by kiand.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      We don’t really know, as most planets were formed sort of at the same time. Its possible Jupiter might have been the first planet formed in some models of the formation of the solar system.
      However the planets formed by rocks colliding with rocks to make bigger rocks, and so on and so on. So the Earth was probably made of lots of little rocks that got bigger by clumping together. Eventually one of these bigger rocks (or planetismals as they are called) started pulling in all the nearby rocks, and that was the Earth. Similar things happened to the other planets, so its difficult to say which was first.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      We’re not sure but the most popular opinion seems to be that Jupiter and Saturn formed first. I’m no expert in this field, though! I study distant galaxies. 🙂

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