🌍 GeographyUPSC 1999Soil

Which one of the following scholars suggested the earth’s origin from gases and dust particles?

aJames Jeans
bH. Alfven
cF. Hoyle
dO. Schmidt
✓ Correct answer: d) O. Schmidt
ExplanationOtto Schmidt, a Soviet geophysicist and astronomer, proposed a theory for the origin of the Earth and other planets in the solar system based on a cloud of gas and dust particles.His hypothesis, known as the “dust cloud hypothesis”, sug- gested that the Sun, while already formed, captured or interact- ed with a surrounding cloud of interstellar material.This cloud, composed of gas, dust, and ice particles, began to rotate and flat- ten under the influence of the Sun’s gravity.Within this rotating disk, particles collided and clumped together, gradually forming larger and larger bodies. v v v

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