how come the earth dosnt crash into the sun?

Question

i dont get it. the earth moves close to the sun, then after it goes around the back of it it goes further away from the sun. i thaught that the suns gravitational pull would pull it closer to the sun. so why does it go from being so close to the sun and escape its gravitational pull which brings it closer to the sun in the first place. i dont get it

Answer 1

it's called an orbit.
the sun is also moving away from the earth as it's falling.
If the earth were falling at a faster rate than the sun was moving away from it, then we would fall into it.

If the earth were not on it's orbit around the sun, the moon would not be able to orbit the earth.

I've read of studies that showed that the orbit of the earth around the sun is slowing down and we are gradually moving further away from the sun. Something like the gravitational pull decreases over time. People tell me I'm wrong about this all the time, but I've heard it from more than one place.

Answer 2

The earth is on a slightly elliptical orbit. its basically a careful balance between the gravitational pull of the sun and the acceleration and deceleration the earth as it travels this orbit. Keplers laws of planetary motion mathematically explain the behavior of orbiting bodies in closed orbits, which the earth is in. In fact almost all naturally occuring orbits are elliptical. Most of the cicular orbits i know of are satellites that humans have put up. The link i've attached is a brief intro to celestial mechanics if you want to know more.

Answer 3

Oh, yes, it can be confusing especially considering that the earth is *trying* to crash into the sun, but it keeps missing. Hang with me for a moment.

Imagine that you are standing on the top of a very tall mountain, and that you have a bucket of balls. You throw a ball and watch it go out from you and down from you crashing into the ground. So, you grab another ball and throw a bit harder. The ball goes out and down, but you notice that it fell further from you. You throw another ball even harder this time. The ball goes out from you far enough this time to go over the horizon; but it still crashes to the ground. Hmmm, you think to yourself. "Watch this," you say as you grab another ball throwing it really, really hard. You watch the ball go out, and you watch it go down; but this time you have thrown it so hard that it goes over the horizon; it still falls toward the ground, but the curve of the fall exactly matches the curve of the earth. It keeps going until...whack!...it hits you in the back! Ooops, you forgot to duck.

What happened? You threw to ball outward with just enough speed do that its trajectory exactly matched the curve of the earth. It came right around the earth and you didn't duck.

You threw the ball into an orbit. It is going out from you and falling down from you, but the outward movement exactly cancels the downward movement and it misses the ground. If there were no air friction it would keep going, and going, and going (no bunny jokes, please!).

Make sense?

HTH

Charles

Answer 4

It's in a stable elliptical orbit. It's basically in free-fall around the sun, like satellites orbiting the earth are in free-fall around the earth. Look up 'orbital mechanics'.

Answer 5

Centrifugal force and gravity keep us in a relatively stable orbit . Given enough time the earth will eventually crash into the Sun. Don't worry it would take billions of years to do that.