Why Planets Revolve Around The Sun?

Why Planets Revolve Around The Sun?

This might probably be one of the first questions that arrived in every student’s mind when he read the first chapter on the solar system. Most people are also curious about why planets revolve around the sun in an elliptical rather than a circular orbit?

The simple answer is sun’s gravitational pull is responsible for keeping all the planets revolving around the sun. The gravity of the sun aligns all the planets in their orbit. The moon revolves around the earth due to the earth’s gravitation. In the same way, the earth and all the remaining planets revolve around the sun due to its gravity.

The force that acts on the planets revolving around the sun is perpendicular to the sun’s gravitational pull. So the earth travels in an elliptical path instead of getting thrown away all over the solar system. If it weren't, then all the planets would be moving in a straight line. I know it is very tough to visualize. Let me explain to you with an example.

Consider you have supernatural powers(supernatural means powers beyond your thinking), and I want you to throw that stone in the air at your optimum power (remember, I have given you supernatural powers). Now you throw the stone with your supreme power. The Stone starts moving. If you were a normal human being(as you are), your thrown stone would have fallen after traveling a certain distance.

But as I gave you power, your stone would travel beyond our thinking. The earth is a curve, and the stone will keep going on the horizon, and after some time, the stone will hit your back of the head—that is how orbits work.

In this example, we avoided the earth’s air resistance. The same situation is applied to all the planets revolving around the sun. that’s how planets revolve in an elliptical orbit.

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