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This flattening is a natural consequence of collisions between particles in a spinning cloud. A cloud may start with any size or shape, and different clumps of gas within the cloud may be moving in random directions at random speeds. When the cloud collapses, these different clumps collide and merge, resulting in a flattened rotating disk.

Comments: Importantly, the cloud will be spinning slightly, because of random

motion effects.

As it collapses it will spin faster (conservation of angular momentum).

You can then explain what happens it in terms of the "centrifugal effect".

This effect is smallest near the axis of rotation of the cloud. So that the cloud will naturally flatten out.

A more technical explanation uses the "law of conservation of angular momentum".

This shows again the natural tendency to form a disk from a spinning cloud.

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Related Questions

What happens to the rotation of a molecular cloud as it collapses to form a star?

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