planet orbits

[eelyeroc]

whenever our solar system is shown from afar, whether in a drawing or a computer animation, it is shown as though all the planets are on the same plane. never one orbiting like you think of an atom with its electrons traveling in numerous directions. is this the way it is? all the planets on one relative plane? or is it more like the atom? anyone?

Edited December 18, 2010 by eelyeroc

[D H]

 

 

I assume you are referring to images such as the above. The orbits of the planets look much more like your image than this image. More interesting, that picture of atoms is not a picture of atoms, either. It depicts the Rutherford model, which was discarded back in 1925. It doesn't work.

 

Back to the solar system: The orbits of the planets pretty much do share a common plane, the ecliptic. Of the eight planets, Mercury's orbit has the greatest inclination, and that is only 6.34 degrees. Venus' inclination is next highest at 2.2 degrees, Mars' is 1.67, Earth's is 1.57, Uranus 1.02, and Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune, less than a degree.

[eelyeroc]

doesn't this seem a little odd that all the planets are on a similiar plane. is there any theory that trys to explain this?

 

 

I assume you are referring to images such as the above. The orbits of the planets look much more like your image than this image. More interesting, that picture of atoms is not a picture of atoms, either. It depicts the Rutherford model, which was discarded back in 1925. It doesn't work.

 

Back to the solar system: The orbits of the planets pretty much do share a common plane, the ecliptic. Of the eight planets, Mercury's orbit has the greatest inclination, and that is only 6.34 degrees. Venus' inclination is next highest at 2.2 degrees, Mars' is 1.67, Earth's is 1.57, Uranus 1.02, and Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune, less than a degree.

[mytechuniverse]

I believe the reason planets exist on a similar plane has to do with gravity. The force of gravity and centrifugal force creates circular motion, and the general theory of relativity posits that we all exist on a universal plane. I guess that causes the planets to all orbit on a similar plane. I'm just a student, so feel free to correct me.

[Spyman]

The reason all planets lie on the same plane is because they all formed from the same flat disc of matter whirling around its center.

 

Outer Planet Orbits

This shows the relative sizes and positions of the orbits of the planets farther from the Sun than Earth. All the planets have orbits that are ellipses with the Sun at one of the foci, and the ellipses are in different planes. However, in a perspective view of the orbits such as this one, only Pluto has a noticeably noncircular orbit that lies in a different plane from the other planets.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=175

 

 

The Solar System formed from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud 4.568 billion years ago. This initial cloud was likely several light-years across and probably birthed several stars.

 

As the region that would become the Solar System, known as the pre-solar nebula, collapsed, conservation of angular momentum made it rotate faster. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hotter than the surrounding disc. As the contracting nebula rotated, it began to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc with a diameter of roughly 200 AU and a hot, dense protostar at the centre. At this point in its evolution, the Sun is believed to have been a T Tauri star. Studies of T Tauri stars show that they are often accompanied by discs of pre-planetary matter with masses of 0.001–0.1 solar masses, with the vast majority of the mass of the nebula in the star itself. The planets formed by accretion from this disk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system

Edited December 18, 2010 by Spyman

[mytechuniverse]

I concede my previous statement because it sounds asinine. I'm very sorry, I was tired at the time and it had been a long day. Spyman has the best response.