Back then, the solar system was just a massive, spinning cloud of dust and gas, Nader Haghighipour, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, told Live Science?

That cloud became so big, that even though it was just filled with dust and gas molecules, the cloud itself started to collapse and shrink under its own mass, Haghighipour said.

As the spinning cloud of dust and gas started to collapse, it also flattened.

Over the next 50 million years, the sun continued to grow, collecting gas and dust from its surroundings and burping out waves of intense heat and radiation.

Eventually, the cloud became a flat structure called a protoplanetary disk, orbiting the young star?

For tens of millions of years thereafter, the dust particles in the protoplanetary disk gently swirled around, occasionally knocking into each other?

Originally published on Live Science.

JoAnna is also a science cartoonist and has published comics with Gizmodo, NASA, Science News for Students and more.

Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.

Thank you for signing up to Live Science.