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jk22
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planets in the solar system lie almost in a plane. Is this because the sun is rotating on itself ?
rbj said:i don't know what the qualification "on itself" means. the Sun rotates.
i think the reason why most of the solar system is mostly co-planar is similar to why most galaxies are mostly disk-shaped (all stars are close to a common plane). it has to do with the initial primordial turbulence from the big bang. turbulent motion has swirls in it. some swirls are bigger than others. as gravity pulls things together, how might you expect to see these swirls collapse?
jk22 said:planets in the solar system lie almost in a plane. Is this because the sun is rotating on itself ?
kweba said:I think I'm wrong about this, but in GR, are not all the planets lie on different (lower and upper) regions of the "gravitational well" of the sun's spacetime curvature? I might be mistaken so I apologize, but can anybody clear this up?
Drakkith said:The gravity well extends in 3 dimensions, so there aren't any "lower and upper" regions unless you're talking about the strength of gravity. You aren't thinking of the bowling ball on a trampoline analogy are you? If so that is...barely accurate.
kweba said:So in any case, what exactly is happening? Are the planets on the same plane? So are there any "gravitational wells" existing at all?
The reason for this is due to the way our solar system was formed. About 4.6 billion years ago, a large cloud of gas and dust collapsed and began to spin. As the spinning cloud collapsed, it flattened into a disk shape due to gravity. This disk eventually formed into our sun and the planets, all orbiting in the same plane.
No, it is not a coincidence. The formation of the solar system followed the laws of physics and the conservation of angular momentum, resulting in a flattened disk shape with all the planets orbiting in the same plane.
The tilt, or obliquity, of a planet's axis does not have a significant effect on its orbit. The tilt of the Earth's axis, for example, is what causes our seasons, but it does not affect the plane of our orbit around the sun.
There are a few minor exceptions, such as Pluto's orbit which is tilted at an angle compared to the other planets. However, this is due to Pluto's unique formation and its classification as a dwarf planet. The majority of objects in our solar system, including the eight planets, orbit in the same plane.
Yes, the planets' orbits can change over time due to gravitational interactions with other planets and objects in our solar system. However, these changes happen gradually and are unlikely to disrupt the overall alignment of the planets in our solar system.