Why is the earth rotating around the sun instead of getting smashed into it by it's massive gravity?

Answer 1

momentum.

its being slung around the sun really , meaning its going forward really fast, but the sun keeps pulling on it so that its not released.

(if you look at the whole thing tilted 90 degrees then it becomes the idea of free fall)

get a heavy object and tie it to a string.

stand there and spin in circles counter clockwise with the object flying outward.

the object is actually moving to the left of you, but you keep spinning meaning left is moving in relation to you too, becoming forward momentum

notice the object doesn't move closer to you as you hold the string?

thats because the string (and the sun's gravity) are constant.

pull the string closer (increase gravity) and keep pulling then you'll get the effect you described above.

if we increased the suns gravity just a tiny bit, I believe the planets would move a bit closer to the sun, but more importantly their orbit speeds would increase.

Answer 2

Because inertia (rotational momentum) caused by the earth's orbit around the sun produces a force opposite to the gravity between the earth and the sun!

Answer 3

Gravity accelerates every body...that doesnt mean that every trajectory in a gravity field will intersect with the surface of the body causing the gravitational field.

The Earth's trajectory due to the Sun's gravitational field describes an ellipse (nearly circular). Not funtamentally different from the trajectory of a tossed ball with respect to the Earth - only that trajectory is far more eccentric and intersects the Earth's surface.

Answer 4

Free-fall!

The trick to an orbit is the body moves forward by exactly the amount it falls toward the gravitating body. It is a wonderful gift of nature that moving bodies natually find this balance point because the body accelerates as it falls, it will eventually find an "orbital speed" for any angle of approach that is not "straight down."

Answer 5

centrifigual force. as we rotate, we are actually trying to get away, however the suns gravity holds us in an orbit.

Answer 6

Basically centrifugal force. The reason the Earth does not slow down, loose the centrifugal force and fall in is because there is no friction in space. It just keeps on going and going and going.

Answer 7

its easiest to think of the earth orbitting so fast that it is always being draggedinto the sun but also trying to shoot past it, so its like it is always 'falling' around the sun