Formation of a Planet

Planets begin forming from clouds of dust and gas that are floating around after the collapse of a molecular cloud called a solar nebula. A few of the more freely floating materials clumped together, form a primitive meteorite called a chondrite. These chondrules then attract other grains from the solar nebula based on magnitude which creates an asteroid. This process continues as the asteroid gets pulled into the Main Belt and begins to take repeated hits by other asteroids which attach to the original asteroid and begin to form a complete planet. This process ultimately takes 500-700 million years to complete.