How do planets hang in space?

Question

Excuse me... I believe I missed class the day this question was addressed. So anyone have ideas based on science? Why don't they float away? I know space is a vacuum, but what keeps them in place with timely rotations required for human existence. I do believe in God and I believe he is the ID (Intelligent Design[er]). Many people agree that ID exist, but not that God had anything to do with it *sigh.* Thank you. And if I offended, my sincere apologies. God Bless, and Peace for those who don't.

Answer 1

Gravity....everything in the universe attracts every other thing with a force proportional to the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. As you move further away from the earth, the earth attracts less. But there is still enough attraction to cause things to go into orbits....same with the sun and other planets.

THe point is that no force is require to keep things rotating *because* they are in a vacuum. There is no friction to stop them!

Answer 2

Are you interested to believe that there is ID? If not read this answer.
Throw a stone at your full force. The stone will be traveling. Do you know why it travels in air and does not fall soon after it is released from your hand. It is inertia received by the Kinetic energy you gave. Once the air resistance and gravity overtakes its inertia it falls down.
Similarly the planets keep revolving around the Sun because of the inertia. Gravitational force of Sun is not able to over power the planets.
This must be enough for you. If you like you can say the inertia / KE to planets was given by ID untill you understand how planets have inertia / KE.

Answer 3

The planets are pulled near stars (like the sun) by the stars gravity, but they don't crash into the stars because the planets are being pushed by inertia (thought to have been caused by the big bang and if you don't believe in the big bang then that just means the planets are moving outward with force). The reason planets keep rotating is because of that balance of gravity and inertia.

Answer 4

Attach a 5 foot string to a tennis ball and spin it around your head. The ball represents a planet, the string represents the gravity and you represent the sun. If you let go of the string, the tennis ball would just go flying off - and so would a planet if gravity just stopped existing.

Answer 5

They hang around because of the suns gravity.If the sun was not there we would float away.We are on a invisible tether that is spinning around.And just like if you tied a string around your finger with a weight on the end and spun it it would spin even when you stopped spinning it.How ever this process is not guaranteed to last forever because just like the string on your finger we are being pulled closer to the sun every day.And the outer planets are getting farther away.Just like the moon it gets closer to the earth every day....hope this helps...

Answer 6

Why do planets and stars (Sun) hang without falling down? Is it because gravity is at zero?

Answer 7

The planets ate held in place by the gravity of the sun as they orbit it. Not unlike you being held on the earth by gravity. No supreme being required...just the laws pf physics.

Answer 8

umm, when i was young i used to worry about huge planets like jupiter crashing into the earth. of course its all crazy, the planets are all in stable orbits around the sun. their motion keeps them from falling into the sun, while the sun's gravity keeps them from flying out into space.

Answer 9

Gravity and Inertia

Answer 10

They already have floated away. That's what keeps them. They've already arrived at "away." (At least, insofar as gravity, space, and time are concerned...)