Nebular hypothesis of the Solar System's origin
Hipótesis nebular sobre el origen del sistema solar
- Date
- 1755-1796 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Pierre-Simon Laplace; earlier idea by Immanuel Kant (1755)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
In his 'Exposition du système du monde' (1796), Laplace proposed that the Sun formed from a rotating hot atmosphere which, as it cooled and contracted, shed rings of gas that condensed into planets, an idea Kant had independently sketched in 1755. The Laplacian model dominated 19th-century astronomy until angular-momentum problems led to its abandonment in the early 20th century.
What it led to
- Dominant model of Solar System origin through the 19th century
- Angular-momentum debate that led to its abandonment in the early 20th century
- Modern protoplanetary disk formation models
Built on
- Emanuel Swedenborg's nebular idea (1734)
- Immanuel Kant's nebular theory (1755)