How Was Jupiter Formed?
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The Nebula
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The formation of Jupiter began with the nebula from which the entire solar system was formed. Nebula are vast interstellar clouds made up mostly of hydrogen gas, but also dust and traces of other elements. Gravity causes a nebula to eventually begin to coalesce and collapse under its own weight, creating a protoplanetary disk.
Planetary Formation
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In a process called accretion, particles of dust and gas collided and stuck together. As a given clump of matter grew more massive, its gravity increased and it drew more material toward it. This began a self-sustaining and accelerating process. These clumps, through attracting loose matter and collisions with other clumps, eventually became large enough to be what are called planetisimals. The planetisimals then continued to grow in size, becoming protoplanets. The final stage was reached when the sun ignited and blew away the remaining loose gas and dust with its solar wind of charged particles.
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Matter in the Solar System
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During this process, the collapse of gas and dust caused it to accelerate on its fall toward the center, creating a great deal of heat toward the center of the disk. This caused substances with a low melting point to boil away, which is the reason why the inner planets are small and made mostly of silicates (rock) and metals, and the outer planets--or gas giants--are gigantic but made of light gases.
Why Jupiter is a Gas Giant
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Jupiter is composed of between 95 and 99 percent of hydrogen and helium gas. It's also the biggest planet in the solar system, more than 2 1/2 times larger than all of the other planets combined. Also, in line from the sun, it's the first of the gas giants. None of these things is an accident. Instead, much of it has to do with Jupiter's position. Jupiter was far enough away from the hot inner disk to avoid having its light elements--hydrogen and helium--boiled away, but close enough to the center to collect a substantially greater amount of those light elements as they collapsed inward.
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- Photo Credit NASA
