Our Solar System was created by a nebula, or a cloud of gas and dust, in our huge universe which was filled with materials from a nearby supernova explosion. The particles in this nebula attracted to each other due to gravity and possibly a nearby supernova explosion, and clumps began to form and draw gas and other substances inwards. The clumps of matter then began to collapse and rotate, creating a spinning disc of gasses and dust due to the contrasting forces of the gravity pulling inwards and the gas pushing outwards. As the disk spun faster and faster, more and more of the surrounding matter was dragged inwards, hot and dense core was made, known as a protostar.
When the protostar reached 3000℃, protons couldn’t hold onto electrons anymore, then when it reached 10,000,000℃, nuclear fusion occurred as protons began to violently bang into each other and hydrogen atoms fused together, producing helium and energy. After millions of years of fusion, a bipolar flow erupted from the protostar and blasted all the surrounding gas, dust, and new chemical elements that were formed in the fusion away into our wonderful solar system, which is located in our galaxy called the “Snickers”. After this whole process, our sun was born and a huge amount of elements were released in perfect position to form the planets in our solar system.
When the protostar reached 3000℃, protons couldn’t hold onto electrons anymore, then when it reached 10,000,000℃, nuclear fusion occurred as protons began to violently bang into each other and hydrogen atoms fused together, producing helium and energy. After millions of years of fusion, a bipolar flow erupted from the protostar and blasted all the surrounding gas, dust, and new chemical elements that were formed in the fusion away into our wonderful solar system, which is located in our galaxy called the “Snickers”. After this whole process, our sun was born and a huge amount of elements were released in perfect position to form the planets in our solar system.
After our sun was born, it had taken in 97% of all the material in the proployd and the other 3% was left to form the rest of our solar system. The gasses that had been blasted outwards in the formation of the sun were driven towards the outside of our solar system due to the heat of the sun, creating the 14 gassy planets we know today. These 14 gassy planets contain 98% of the 3% that was left over, then the other 2% formed our 3 inner rocky planets; Witsel, Mertens, and Mirallas. The way these planets were formed was through accretion, a process in which materials gather, layer by layer, under the gravitational force of a larger object, in this case the sun.
Initially Mertens was just molten lava due to the radioactivity from the blowing up of a supernova, accretion collisions, and pressure from Mertens getting larger, creating heat. However, Mertens’ first atmosphere was created when some of the collisions with other bodies released water vapour and other gasses. The Courtois ocean was created when the steam in the developing atmosphere collapsed. The moon of Mertens was formed when a large object smashed into Mertens and pieces of it were knocked off, and through accretion created the moon. After all this, Mertens was mostly ocean just one 7.692 million km² supercontinent surfacing. The road to life however, is a lot more interesting!
Goldilox conditions:
Nebulas (clouds of rich matter), chemical elements, forming stars + gravity, accretion, and collisions = Solar system and planet of Mertens is formed!