Scientists believe that the solar system was formed when a cloud of gas and dust in space was disturbed, maybe by the supernova of a nearby star. Shock waves from the explosion compressed the cloud of gas and dust. Compression made the cloud collapse, as gravity pulled the gas and dust together, forming a solar nebula.

Our solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago from a dense cloud of interstellar gas and dust. The cloud collapsed, possibly due to the shockwave of a nearby exploding star, called a supernova. When this dust cloud collapsed, it formed a solar nebula—a spinning, swirling disk of material.

Asteroids are rocky remnants from the formation of the solar system. They are not spherical and have differing compositions and histories. Most, although not all asteroids, reside in a region between Mars and Jupiter where numerous other small rocky worlds orbit the sun.

UCSD Discovery Suggests ‘Protosun’ Was Shining During Formation Of First Matter In Solar System. Astronomers believe this wind blew matter from the core of the rotating solar nebula into its pancake-like accretion disk, the region in which meteorites, asteroids and planets later formed.

Most of these leftovers orbit beyond Neptune, the most distant of the solar system’s eight “major” planets. They formed from the disk of gas and dust that surrounded the newborn Sun. Small particles clumped together to form larger pieces, called planetesimals. These, in turn, merged to form the planets themselves.

A nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas occupying the space between stars and acting as a nursery for new stars. The roots of the word come from Latin nebula, which means a “mist, vapor, fog, smoke, exhalation.” Nebulae are made up of dust, basic elements such as hydrogen and other ionized gases.

Yes, it is possible for stars to turn into planets. But this happens for only a specific category of stars- called as brown dwarfs.