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nebular hypothesis

any of several hypotheses about the origin of the solar system, based on the theory that the sun and the planets formed at about the same time from a nebula

See nebular hypothesis in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
A hypothesis concerning the origin of the solar system according to which a rotating nebula cooled and contracted, throwing off rings of matter that contracted into the planets and their moons, while the great mass of the condensing nebula became the sun.

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