Scientists’ current explanation of how the solar system was created is known as the nebular hypothesis, which says that the Sun and the planets of our solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of a nebula (a giant cloud of gas and dust). As the nebula collapsed, gravity caused the cloud to spin, creating a flattened disk of matter.
Gravity in the center of the collapsed nebula caused matter to be pulled in, increasing the density and pressure. This caused nuclear fusion to start, resulting in the formation of the Sun.
With the Sun at the center of the disk, the matter orbiting around it began to collide and form larger clumps. These clumps began to cool off and solidify, forming the planets. Because of gravity from the sun, these clumps of matter were sorted by their composition. The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) formed from dense rock and metal. The outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) condensed further from the Sun from lighter materials such as hydrogen, helium, water, ammonia, and methane.
The nebular hypothesis describes some of the basic features of our solar system. It includes five main points: