Why Do the Planets Orbit in the Same Plane?
While there is a little wiggle room, the planets in our solar system really are orbiting on mostly the same level. Why do they do that? Hosted by: Olivia Gordon ---------- Support SciShow...
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[ ♪ Intro ] When you see a map of the solar system, it looks like all of the planets are orbiting the Sun in a flat, two-dimensional plane -- but that’s not just to save paper. While there is a little wiggle room, the planets really are orbiting on mostly the same level. And we’ve actually known that since before telescopes existed, just by charting where the planets and Sun appear in the sky. But why are their orbits so flat? Well, it all comes down to how the solar system formed. Our stellar neighborhood started out as a giant, roughly spherical cloud of gas and dust particles. And that cloud had a very tiny amount of spin. Then, for some reason, it started collapsing. Astronomers aren’t 100% sure what triggered that collapse, but most will say it...
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[ ♪ Intro ] When you see a map of the solar system, it looks like all of the planets are orbiting the Sun in a flat, two-dimensional plane -- but that’s not just to save paper. While there is a little wiggle room, the planets really are orbiting on mostly the same level. And we’ve actually known that since before telescopes existed, just by charting where the planets and Sun appear in the sky. But why are their orbits so flat? Well, it all comes down to how the solar system formed. Our stellar neighborhood started out as a giant, roughly spherical cloud of gas and dust particles. And that cloud had a very tiny amount of spin. Then, for some reason, it started collapsing. Astronomers aren’t 100% sure what triggered that collapse, but most will say it...
