The Solar System’s First Planets Were Made of Fire, Not Ice

What happened

The early stages of the solar system remain shrouded in mystery. Not much remains from that time, but scientists have developed plenty of theories about what was going on back then.

The Solar System’s First Planets Were Made of Fire, Not Ice By Andy Tomaswick - September 28, 2026 01:37 AM UTC | Planetary Science The early stages of the solar system remain shrouded in mystery. Obviously choosing between “fire” and “ice” is a massive oversimplification.

What the paper actually looked at was a preference for what scientists called “condrules” (which were formed in “fire”) and “matrices” (which were formed in “ice”). Chondrules are millimeter-sized pieces of solid rock that were created when clumps of dust in the vacuum of space were subjected to extreme heating events, such as massive shockwaves from supernovae.

They then melted into liquid droplets and rapidly cooled to form what look like tiny pebbles - and lots of them. Fraser talks about what was here before the solar system. Matrices, on the other hand, were somehow not affected by the same shockwaves as the chondrule brethren.