Because of the original angular momentum and subsequent evolution of the collapsing nebula, this hypothesis provides a natural explanation for some basic facts about the Solar System: the orbits of the planets lie nearly in a plane with the sun at the center (let's neglect the slight eccentricity of the planetary orbits to simplify the discussion), the planets all revolve in the same direction, and the planets mostly rotate in the same direction with rotation axes nearly perpindicular to the orbital plane.
The nebular hypothesis explains many of the basic features of the Solar System, but we still do not understand fully how all the details are accounted for by this hypothesis. As we discuss in the next section, we now have some direct observational evidence in support of the nebular hypothesis.
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