Propose an explanation why the Jovian planets are orbited by terrestrial-like satellites.

Imagine holding a rock in your hand. That rock shares a lot with terrestrial planets, which are the rocks of our Solar System. Well, not just any rocks, but those like our very own planet Earth—solid, dense and made primarily from rock and metal. There are four terrestrial planets in our Solar System: Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury.

Their traits include having solid surfaces layered with mountains, valleys, and craters. They're closer to the Sun, which means that they're warmer and minus a considerable amount of ice. Unlike the more distant Jovian planets, such as Jupiter, terrestrial planets did not gather enough lighter materials, like hydrogen and helium, because these materials had been swept away by solar winds by the time they formed.

Our terrestrial Earth circles the Sun in good company with these siblings, each planet having unique characteristics but sharing a rocky composition that stands in contrast to the gas giants of the outer Solar System.

Let's unravel the story of our Solar System's genesis with the nebular hypothesis. Picture a celestial spinning wheel of gas and dust, stretching out like a gigantic cosmic pizza. This 'wheel,' formally known as a nebula, is where it all started.

A long time ago, under the influence of gravity, this dust and gas started to pull together, clumping up in certain regions. As it collapsed, it spun quicker due to the conservation of angular momentum—like a figure skater pulling in her arms to spin faster. With a spinning flattened disk taking shape, the material at the center clumped up to ignite and form our Sun. The rest of the material, continuing to spin, began to stick together to create planets, moons, and other cosmic bodies.

This nebular hypothesis is key in understanding why we see planets and moons orbiting around, as it sketches out a blueprint for the construction of planetary systems, including our own.

Diving deeper into our cosmic history book, the formation of the Solar System is a thrilling tale of transformation. Following the nebular hypothesis, the rotating disk of dust and gas wasn't content with just creating any old sun—no, it had planet-building aspirations too!

The particles within the disk began sticking together, forming clumps called planetesimals, sort of like cosmic snowballs. Over time, these snowballs grew larger as they collided and stuck to each other, eventually fashioning the planets. While closer to the Sun, where it was hotter, rocky terrestrial planets formed; further away in the cooler reaches, the Jovian, or gas giant planets, came to be.

This narrative tells us how our planetary neighborhood, with its diverse array of planets from sizzling rocky worlds to frigid gas giants, came to exist in a process typically taking millions of years to unfold.

Now, let's get spinning with a bit of physics. The conservation of angular momentum may not sound like your usual space term, but it's a mighty force in shaping celestial objects, much like its more popular cousin, gravity.

Angular momentum is a measure of the momentum of an object in rotation. The 'conservation' part? That's a law of physics saying that if no external force acts on a system, the angular momentum of that system stays constant.

This concept explains why a nebula, slowly collapsing under its own gravity, spins faster and faster—ultimately shaping the flattened spinning disk where planets are born. It's the reason planets orbit the sun and moons orbit planets. It keeps the universe dancing in an intricate cosmic ballet, preserving the motion set in place from the very beginning of our Solar System's formation.