Kant's Hypothesis

in astronomy, the hypothesis of the formation of the planetary system out of diffuse matter that fills all the space of this system and is in uniform rotational motion around a central condensation—the sun. It was set forth in I. Kant’s General History of Nature and the Theory of the Heavens (1755), in which he raised the question about the natural origin of all celestial bodies (“Give me matter, and I will show you how the world must form from it”) and provided a cos-mogonical explanation of the regularities of planetary motion. Generally speaking, Kant’s hypothesis presents a true picture of the development of a rotating dust cloud. (In the hypothesis there is reference to “particles,” since in Kant’s time the existence of atoms and molecules of gases and their distinction from dust particles was not known.)

The mathematical basis for the cosmogonical picture presented by Kant was supplied only in the middle of the 20th century, when the role of the transformation of mechanical energy into heat energy during collisions of solid particles was understood.