How Did the Solar System Form? The tale of our sun may begin with another star: a predecessor whose fiery death brought about the birth of our solar system.

– Gavriel, age 10, Paducah, Kentucky A cloud of collapsing gas created our Sun, the first thing to form in our solar system. This happened about 4½ billion years ago.

How Did the Solar System Form? The tale of our sun may begin with another star: a predecessor whose fiery death brought about the birth of our solar system.

This process, called accretion, is how everything in the solar system – planets, moons, comets and asteroids – came into being.

– Gavriel, age 10, Paducah, Kentucky A cloud of collapsing gas created our Sun, the first thing to form in our solar system. This happened about 4½ billion years ago.

This process, called accretion, is how everything in the solar system – planets, moons, comets and asteroids – came into being.