/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.2138814]

In our solar system, we have 8 planets. Why do these 8 planets have orbits that are level with eachother?

[Anonymous No.2138820]

Because they formed more or less in the same plane, which we call the ecliptic. It used to be a cloud of dust and gas and shit around the early Sun. This is how nearly all solar systems form.

[Anonymous No.2138821]

There are 9 planets that have orbits that are not in level with one another.

No, I'm not talking about Pluto either.

[Amomynous No.2138825]

Because, when the solar system formed, it must have been spinning with a lot of energy. The centrifugal forces "smush" the "cloud" into a disk-shape. Thus, as the cloud cooled and planets formed, the planets rotated on a (practically) single plane.

[Amomynous No.2138828]

>>2138821
If Pluto isn't a planet then neither is Ceres or whatever other dwarf planet you consider the 9th

[MR. RAGE !D9l9S8Lio6 No.2138829]

THEY ALL STARTED FROM THE SAME CLOUD SPINNING IN A DIRECTION, MAKES SENSE THEY'D ALL BE (ABOUT) LEVEL.

THAT SAID THEY'RE NOT PRECISELY LEVEL BY ANY MEANS, IT'S JUST A SIMPLER MODEL TO DEAL WITH.

[Anonymous No.2138867]

ITT: Everyone does OP's high school Astronomy HW for him.

[Anonymous No.2138886]

They have astronomy as a course in high school!?

[Anonymous No.2138993]

>>2138886
They did in mine. We had a planetarium and everything, we had to bring over technicians from Japan to service it. I think it cost the school something like 1.5 million dollars. It had IMAX seats and shit, you bet your ass I took that course.

[Anonymous No.2139195]

>>2138820
No, an ecliptic is the path we perceive the sun to travel through the sky. That all the planets orbit around the sun almost on a plane is the consequence of the solar system being formed vis a vis an accretion disc.

[Anonymous No.2139229]

>>2139195
The ecliptic and the plane of Earth's orbit are basically the same and this holds true more or less for the rest of the planets in the solar system, which is why I used to the terms interchangeably. I know it's not exactly the right word to use but I usually shorten 'plane of the ecliptic' to 'the ecliptic'. My mistake.

[Anonymous No.2139303]

>>2138828

Not Ceres or Xenia or whatever the fuck other planetoids there are scattered around.

The Earth and the Moon are actually a double planet system. The general consensus is that the Moon is the remnant debris from a collision from a planetesimals with Earth during the solar systems formation. The size and composition are equivalent to the other terrestrial world so it is not a captured asteroid from the asteroid or kuiper (sp?) belt and there is an empty Lagrangian where a planet could or should have formed. Finally, the orbit of the Moon is not concave enough around the Earth such that it orbits the Earth as it revolves around the Sun. They both "wobble" around a central point of mass instead of one around the other.

9 planets.

[Anonymous No.2139321]

>>2139303
lol no, the moon is not a planet because it does not orbit a star it orbits the Earth

[Anonymous No.2139342]

>>2139303
>They both "wobble" around a central point of mass instead of one around the other.

All gravitational systems do this. The barycenter of the Earth-Moon system is inside the earth, while the barycenter of the sun-Jupiter system is outside of the sun.

Under your retarded logic, the Sol system is a binary star system. The definition of "planet" is an object whose gravity has rendered it spherical, that orbits the sun, and has cleared its orbit of other debris. Luna does not fit the definition.

[Anonymous No.2139355]

because gravity lol

[stranger !!a84U6xlfNNi No.2139395]

lolololololol dumbfuck award.

both the earth and the moon orbit the sun, but the pattern is intertwined such that it appears to us that the moon is orbiting the Earth. the same logic would say that we orbit the moon

[Anonymous No.2139416]

>>2139395
using that logic every moon is a planet since all the moons are going around the sun.

[Anonymous No.2139424]

>>2139342

>whose gravity has rendered it spherical, that orbits the sun, and has cleared its orbit of other debris

with special emphasis on

>orbits the sun

This is to make the distinction between Jovian moons whose orbit is centered on their parent planet and the Moon which does not. The Moon orbits the Sun, not the Earth.

>binary star system

Jupiter is a planet, but I bet you were clever enough to figure that one out yourself. Now smarty, tell me the difference between a Jovian and a Star. Hint its about 1/1047th.

I mean, I'm not just making this up. I learned this from an astrophysicist who is teaching my astronomy course at university.

[stranger !!a84U6xlfNNi No.2139426]

>>2139416

No, I'm saying that a planet is not defined as "something orbiting the sun."

[Anonymous No.2139466]

>>2139424
>>2139424

But if you still don't believe me or my professor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Path_of_Earth_and_Moon_around_Sun

Check that shit yo.