"Ordered" actually means "has a wide variety", not "everything is the same." The self-attractive potential energy of a primordial gas cloud is highly directed (

"Ordered" actually means "has a wide variety", not "everything is the same." The self-attractive potential energy of a primordial gas cloud is highly directed (it has a center) and the range of distances from that center is great. When the cloud collapses the range collapses, there's less variation, and so entropy has increased. Also, a gas cloud isn't a closed system. As it collapses it heats up and emits infrared photons that escape. [edit: Actually, I think the important variation is "center" vs. "particle's position." A large sphere, with all particles at the same distance from the center, would still have a lot of potential energy, and a small sphere less so.]