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repugno
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This might seem like a silly question to most of you but I’m going to ask it anyway. Why do all the planets orbit the sun?
Originally posted by chroot
They actually don't orbit the Sun. Both the planets and the Sun orbit their common center of mass. However, the Sun is much, much more massive than the Earth, for example, so the center of mass of the Sun-Earth system is very close to the center of the Sun. That gives the (false) impression that the planets orbit the Sun while the Sun does not move.
- Warren
To elaborate, all the planets go the same direction because they all formed out of the same spinning disk of gas and dust.Originally posted by repugno
Can it be explained exactly why celestial bodies orbit around other bodies, in a particular direction following the same path?
Originally posted by russ_watters
To elaborate, all the planets go the same direction because they all formed out of the same spinning disk of gas and dust.
A supermassive black hole. Its mass? ~2 million times that of the Sun:And can anyone tell me what is at the centre of our galaxy?
Originally posted by repugno
Why was the gas disk spinning in the first place?
To elaborate on what others said, after it starts spinning due to asymetrical collapse, eventually, some objects/portions of the cloud will come into stable orbits and some will not. Those that do will coalesce into planets and those that don't play cosmic pinball for a few billion years, end up as comets, get ejected from the solar systm, or fall into the sun.Originally posted by repugno
Why was the gas disk spinning in the first place? And can anyone tell me what is at the centre of our galaxy?
Thanks
Originally posted by harsh
Contrary to popular belief, the seasons on Earth do not exist because of its orbit around the Sun.
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This is the reason why when the Earth orbits the Sun, seasons occur and change.
The sun's center shifts about inside a highly oblate McLaurin spheroid about 2 solar diameters wide whose center is the solar system barycenter. The plane defined by the major axes is approximately the plane of Jupiter's orbit. The minor axis is (if I remember correctly) less than 10% the length of the two major axes. The sun's wandering inside this spheroid is dominated by Jupiter's gravity, but the movement is perturbed by the other planets so that it isn't a regular orbit around the barycenter. The Earth also responds to Jupiter's gravity, so the apparent movement of the sun isn't noticed so much.chroot said:They actually don't orbit the Sun. Both the planets and the Sun orbit their common center of mass. However, the Sun is much, much more massive than the Earth, for example, so the center of mass of the Sun-Earth system is very close to the center of the Sun. That gives the (false) impression that the planets orbit the Sun while the Sun does not move.
- Warren
The sun will always be in moment-arm counterpoise to the center of mass of everything else in the solar system, and since Jupiter contains 2.5 times more mass than all the other planets, it will impose an evelope of order on the motion of the sun around the solar system barycenter. But in superposition to this order will be an offset that probably is chaotic.selfAdjoint said:Would the movement of the Sun's barycenter inside that ellipsoid be chaotic by any chance? Other net gravitaitonal effects in complex systems seem to be.
The reason why all the planets orbit the sun is due to the force of gravity. The sun's massive size and mass create a gravitational pull that keeps the planets in orbit around it. It is similar to how a magnet pulls smaller metal objects towards it.
We know that the planets orbit the sun because of observations and scientific experiments. Scientists have been able to track the movements of the planets and their positions in relation to the sun. They have also used mathematical formulas and laws of motion to explain and predict the orbits of the planets.
The planets orbit in an elliptical shape because of the combined forces of gravity and inertia. The gravitational pull of the sun keeps the planets in orbit, while their inertia (tendency to continue moving in a straight line) causes them to move around the sun in an elliptical path.
No, all the planets do not orbit the sun at the same speed. The speed of each planet's orbit depends on its distance from the sun. The closer the planet is to the sun, the faster it will orbit, and the farther it is from the sun, the slower it will orbit.
If the sun suddenly disappeared, the planets would no longer have a gravitational force keeping them in orbit. They would continue moving in a straight line and eventually drift off into space. The absence of the sun's heat and light would also have a significant impact on the conditions and life on each planet.