KONTAN.CO.ID – This is the reason why the planets in the solar system orbit in the same plane. The planets in the solar system orbit in the same plane, where a planet originates.
When you were in elementary school, you may have seen a complete model of the solar system with the paths of each planet around the sun. Although invisible, the planets in the solar system orbit in the same plane, as do other celestial bodies, such as the moon and asteroids.
But, what is the reason these celestial objects orbit on the same plane?
Beginning of the formation of the Solar System
To answer that question, we need a time machine going back about 4.5 billion years. Quote from Livescience, the solar system is just a large rotating cloud of dust and gas.
So said Nader Haghipour, an astronomer from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, as quoted from Livescience.
The large cloud measures 12,000 astronomical units (AU), 1 AU is the average distance between the Earth and the sun, which is about 93 million miles (150 million Km). The cloud became so large that even though it was only filled with dust and gas molecules, it began to collapse and shrink under its own mass, Haghighipour said.
As the swirling cloud of dust and gas began to crumble, the debris also spread evenly. Like a pizza maker throwing dough spinning in the air.
The dough rises as it rolls, but becomes thinner and flatter. That’s the picture of what happened in the earliest solar system.
In the middle of the cloud, all the gas molecules are squeezed together so much, they heat up, Haghighipur said. Under tremendous heat and pressure, hydrogen and helium atoms coalesce and initiate billions of years of nuclear reactions in the form of a baby star, the sun.
The next 50 million years, the sun continued to grow, collecting gas and dust from its surroundings and emitting waves of heat and radiation.
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As the sun grows, it clears the empty space around it.
In such a long process, a protoplanetary disk was formed, which orbited the young star. The disk spanned hundreds of AU’s and was only a tenth of that distance thick. The protoplanetary disk continues to spin for tens of millions of years.
Sometimes also crash into each other, even some of them are stuck together. Over the course of millions of years, these particles become millimeter-long grains, then from grains to centimeters of gravel, until the pebbles collide and stick together.
From there, most of the material in the protoplanetary disk sticks together to form large objects. Some of these objects also grow so large that gravity shapes them into spherical planets, dwarf planets, and moons.
Other irregular objects also formed, such as aceteroids, comets and some small moons.
The reason why planets in the solar system orbit in the same plane
After knowing the process from the beginning of the formation of the solar system to the creation of planets and other celestial bodies, the reason why they orbit in the same plane was revealed. Basically, planets or other celestial bodies will orbit in the same plane, where they came from.
Even today, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, to other planets or even asteroids still orbit in their respective fields.
Although the eight planets and other celestial bodies in the solar system are of different sizes, they orbit at roughly the same rate.
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