Why do all planets in our solar system go around the sun in the same way?

Question

Looking at a model of our solar system, and I'm using the term 'horizontal' just so it's easier for me to comprehend, but pretty much everything goes around the sun horizontally.

Someone told me this is because that's the way the sun is turning and all planets have to follow that. Is this true?

And using this same model as a visual image and the three dimensions of space, could it ever be possible for a planet to orbit vertically or even the opposite direction of the other planets in a system? Thoughts?

Answer 1

It's thought that the planets formed from a rotating disk of dust and gas orbiting the Sun. This is the remnant of the cloud that the Sun formed from, so it rotates in the same direction as the Sun, also. All the planets rotate in the same plane and direction as that disk. We can observe (mostly indirectly) similar disks around some stars today.

For a planet to orbit in a radically different direction or plane, it would have to come from or be affected by some source beyond the Sun. Also, our Sun is orbited by a cloud of cometary bodies called the Oort cloud, which appears to be spherical. Comets from the Oort cloud come through the solar system in essentially random orientations.

Answer 2

From what I've read, it seems that all of the planets "spun" off of the central star in a solar system while everything was still expanding and cooling from the Big Bang. At a certain point, gravity took over to hold the newly formed planets in orbit.

I do believe that you could find some nearly vertical orbits, but to have a planet or other heavenly body orbitting oppositely of the rest of the bodies, it would have had to be passing the star in such a way that the stars gravity "grabbed" it and placed it into such an orbit.

Answer 3

The sun formed from a very large cloud of dust and gas (mostly hydrogen). This large cloud started to self-gravitate (come together into a spherical shape). This process creates heat and when there was enough hydrogen and heat available, fusion started and the sun was born.

As the dust further out was pulled toward the large mass in the center (where the sun ignited), it formed into an accretion disk (it went from a spherical cloud into a disk-shaped cloud around the sun). This happens due to the angular momentum of the material as it "falls" toward the sun.

Material in the accretion disk started self-gravitating into smaller shperes that eventually became the planets. Since the accretion disk was rotating around the sun in the same direction, all the planets that developed ended up rotating the same way. Pluto was captured into the sun's orbit as it was passing by, and that is why it is at such a inclination as compared with the other planets.

See the link for more...

Answer 4

The way planets form, it is near impossible to have an orbit that is 90 degrees from another plantet's orbit. The reason pluto's orbit is off by, like, 17 degrees is because it isnt a planet. Its a large mass from the Kaiper belt that didnt form like the other planets did. By the definition of planet, it has to form from the extra stuff after the star is formed. When the star starts to rotate, the planets' gravitational pull will go that same direction due to a lag of gravity pulling. After all the planets have formed, they go the same direction, unless something cosmologically extravagant happens (like a black hole passing through). Then all hell can break loose, and the planets' orbits can look much different from if they had not been disturbed.

Answer 5

Star systems, including our Solar System, form from interstellar gas that contracts into a "proto-stellar nebula" because of gravity. The interstellar gas always has some (very small amount of) spin. As it collapses into a proto-stellar nebula, the spin increases due to "conservation of angular momentum". The usual example is an ice skater pulling in her arms and spinning faster. The protostellar nebula is many thousands of times smaller than the interstellar gas cloud, and so it really spins up a lot, and turns into a spinning disk of gas. Because the gas interacts with all the other gas (by friction [viscosity] and magnetic fields), it all winds up spinning in the same direction. To form the star and planets, the disk must get rid of a lot of angluar momentum, and it can do this by shooting out a jet. The planets form in the spinning disk, and their motion in their orbits is a result of the spinning motion of that disk. After the planets form, they may collide with other planets, and it is possible (although unlikely) that a planet could be turned around and start orbiting the other way. There are, in fact, some asteroids that go around "the wrong way", and half of all comets go around "the wrong way".

Answer 6

basically true,
the sun (center of our solar system) is spinning on its vertical axis which creates a gravitational pull. The other planents do indeed 'follow' in a horizontal pattern, although not perfectly circular in orbit. Also, each planet doesn't orbit in a true around-the-equator orbit, some are slightly "tilted". Also, each planet doesn't rotate on its own true top-to-bottom poles. Some planets spin on their axis which is slightly tilted also. See the linked web site or go to wickipedia for good info.

Yes, you could intentionally put a planet into a "vertical" orbit around the sun, but the other planets would eventually randomly pass by the contra-rotating orbit and slow-down or pull the other planet into a horizontal orbit. basically doesn't make sense if theories about forming from a gassy explosion and "spin-out" hold true....

By the way, go outside and look along a north-south line and you'll see polar satellites passing overhead that are moving in orbit. The ones around the equator are called geo-stationary satellites.

Answer 7

All the planets and asteroids travel around the sun. Most of the comets do also. A very few comets are "one time" visitors, just passing through our solar system. For the comets that do orbit the sun, about 1/2 orbit in retrograde orbits (clockwise). Everything else travels in the the same direction: counter-clockwise around the sun (as seen from far above the North pole). But they all have different speeds and paths.

Answer 8

Eventually the solar system originated from a cloud of dust which started spinning around the heaviest object, the Sun, in much the same way as the water whirls around the sync.
Of course there may be exceptions because of random events and interactions between other solar system or foreign bodies that could have altered the original regular spiral structure.

Answer 9

Sun's turning has nothing to do with the orbits of planets. Orbits around Sun are determined mainly by Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Whether Sun is stationary are rotating it would have no effect on orbits. The plane of rotation is determined by the evolutionary process as to (how it separated from Sun) how the planet entered the Sun's gravitational field.(we are nor sure of this evolutionary process yet).Why the orbit is elliptical is determined by the eccentricity of the conic section.( remember e=1 it is a parabola,e is less than one it is ellipse, e greater than one it is a hyperbola). The plane of orbitals is not exactly horizontal but slighly inclined but not vertical as you surmise.These orbits undergo gradual changes due to reduction in Sun's mass as also friction due to cosmic dust. But it will take billions of years yet for Sun's mass to change substantially. There is no way in which they will go round in opposite way. There is one case of contra rotation in our entire Solar system. That is the contra rotation of Venus on its own axis. Sun rises in the west if you observe the same from venus!

Answer 10

The sun's gravatational pull works like a wirlpool flowing in one direction which is why all the planets follow in simalar. The solar system isn't exactly one level. some planets do go in a some what vertical rotation but not by much.