Immanuel Kant's Solar System

The solar system consists of a central body, the Sun, our star. Orbiting it, are eight major planets and their satellites. There are many other small planets, asteroids and comets. Large planets are arranged in order of distance from the Sun as follows: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (Pic.1). The furthermost two planets can only be seen from Earth through a telescope. All others can be seen as more or less bright circles of light and were known to people since ancient times. Pluto used to be considered a planet but was recently demoted from planetary status to the category of dwarf planet. It belongs to a class of objects that orbit further than Neptune and those objects are part of the Kuiper Belt.

We currently know many hypotheses about the origin of the solar system, including two independently proposed theories, one by the German Philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and the second by the French Mathematician and Physicist Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827). The point of view of Kant was that the solar system formed form nebulous material. Laplace considered the original nebula of gas and very hot in a state of rapid rotation. Squeezing under the force of gravity, the nebula due to the law of conservation of angular momentum spun faster and faster. Under the influence of

Among them are dominated by methane, ammonia and water, to determine the composition of Uranus and Neptune. As part of the most massive planets - Jupiter and Saturn, moreover, it was a significant amount of gas. In the field of terrestrial planets was significantly higher temperature, all volatiles (including methane and ammonia) remained in the gaseous state, and hence of the planets are not included. Planet the group formed mainly of silicates and