Proto-solar Systems and the Sun

Abstract

The question about the origins of our Solar System has always been part of human speculation going back at least to Kant’s and Laplace’s hypotheses in the 18th century. The previous chapters have illustrated how stars emerge from molecular cloud cores and demonstrated that the evolving stars are surrounded by what is called an accretion disk, which evolves with the central star. This disk is synonymous with the Solar Nebula, cited in many referrals to the protostellar disk from which the evolution of today’s Solar System began. With all the technical advances available at present, the observation of protostellar disks and the detection of evolved planets outside the Solar System is as popular a topic as ever. The following sections attempt to shortly introduce the reader to advances in observations of protostellar disks, their dust properties, as well as some concepts in the discussion of how protoplanets could have formed out of dust disks.