Mr. EICHER: We can't really understand the solar system and how it got going unless we can really understand the origins and the conditions that happened when the solar nebula, this cloud of gas and dust, contracted down and the star turned on and the planets got going.

NPR: NASA 'Deep Impact' Probe Targets Comet

These molecules appear at the fringe of the cloud of gas whose gravitational collapse and subsequent heating signals the birth of a star.

ECONOMIST: Planetary formation

People linger delightedly at the Hotel Habitat by Enric Ruiz-Geli with Cloud 9 Acconci Studio and Ruy Ohtake, a miniature simulacrum of a proposed four-star hotel for Barcelona covered with a web of 5, 000 winking light-emitting diodes, or LEDS, powered by solar cells for a nighttime display of glowing colors.

WSJ: Spain's Extraordinary Building Boom