Alfvén's theory

Alfvén's theory

(al-venz ) A theory proposed by the Swedish physicist Hannes Alfvén in 1942 for the formation of the planets out of material captured by the Sun from an interstellar cloud of gas and dust. As atoms fall toward the Sun, they become ionized and subject to the control of the Sun's magnetic field. Ions are concentrated in the plane of the solar equator where the planets coalesce. The theory, in its original form, had difficulty in accounting for the inner planets, but was important in suggesting the role of magnetohydrodynamics in the genesis of the Solar System. See Solar System, origin.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006