Birth of the Planets

Let’s put the nebular theory and the condensation theory together, as most current astronomers do.
Here is a possible portrait of the formation of our solar system: A cloud of interstellar dust, measuring about a light-year across, begins to contract, rotating more rapidly the more it contracts. With the accelerating rotation comes a flattening of the cloud into a pancake-like disk, perhaps 100 A.U. across—100 times the current distance between the earth and the sun.
The original gases and dust grains that had formed the nebular cloud have contracted into condensation nuclei, which begin to attract additional matter, forming clumps that rotate within the disk.
The clumps encounter other clumps and more matter, growing larger by accretion. Accretion is the gradual accumulation of mass, and usually refers to the building up of larger masses from smaller ones through the mutual gravitational attraction of matter.