Planets in the solar system. Why do they travel in the same direction around the sun?

[Capitalizt]

This question just popped in my head. Since the gravity of the sun curves space equally on all sides around it, why are all off the planets orbiting the sun along the same path? Not only are they travelling in the same 'clockwise' direction, but also along the same parallel path.

Why don't planetary bodies orbit more like electrons do around an atom? Shouldn't a few planets have been flying towards the sun from different angles when they were caught by its gravity? If so, why aren't any of them going along the opposite path of the earth, travelling "right to left" or "up to down" around the sun relative to our "left/right" orbit?

I made a couple crude drawings in MS paint to demonstrate my point.
Here is our solar system as we know it:

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/2549/solarsystemmq9.png

And here is my "Why the heck not?" picture?

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/9056/whynotut9.png


Any answers would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BrownTown]

If 2 orbiting objects are goign in different direction then they will exert a force on each other which over time will cause the smaller planet to change direction and go in the same direction and plane as the larger planet. The lowest energy solution for multiple orbiting bodies is to have them all moving in the same plane in the same direction. At least that sounds good .

 

[brikis98]

google is your friend.

The orbits of the planets are coplanar because during the Solar System's formation, the planets formed out of a disk of dust which surrounded the Sun. Because that disk of dust was a disk, all in a plane, all of the planets formed in a plane as well.

 

[Capitalizt]

ah, thanks guys!

so the planets were formed from a disc of dust...I shoulda known

For some reason I thought they were like comets, flying around in different directions, then caught by the sun's gravity. It turns out the sun's gravity is what created them in the first place.

 

[Karot]

Keep in mind that the matter wasn't uniform. There were some clumps of matter that were denser than other places when our universe was formed, creating a greater amount of gravitational potential energy there. This is where you get lots of matter concentrated in smaller areas, such as in galaxies and then relative emptiness between them.

 

[Bladen]

Pluto, the dwarf planet, does not travel perfectly parallel with the otehr "real" planets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Orbit

Also, if the planets where travelling every which-way, eventually they would neutralize (I think), after trillions of years, or when the sun explodes/engulfs them - whichever is sooner (which would be the latter).

 

[alpha88]

They were created that way (either, because they came from a single rotating disc/cloud of matter that condensed into a sun and planets, or because God wanted it like that)

 

[DrPizza]

I've got some bad news for you about the orbits of electrons while we're at it...

 

[LazyGit]

otbitals of electrons

 

[stogez]

Originally posted by: Bladen
Pluto, the dwarf planet, does not travel perfectly parallel with the otehr "real" planets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Orbit

Which is one of the reasons it is no longer a "real" planet. It was probably not a part of the original solar system and got caught by the Sun's gravity at a later time thus explaining its retarded orbit

 

[StopSign]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I've got some bad news for you about the orbits of electrons while we're at it...

Electrons orbit?

 

[LazyGit]

Orbitals. So no they don't orbit. There are regions of space around the nucleus in which there is a certain likelihood of finding an electron. However one of the orbitals, p I think, is hourglass shaped and passes through the nucleus.
cheers

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: StopSign

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I've got some bad news for you about the orbits of electrons while we're at it...

Electrons orbit?

Nuh uh... they're sprinkled around the proton like plum pudding!!!

 

[BrownTown]

Most of the orbitals are crazy shaped except for the very simple ones.

 

[StopSign]

Originally posted by: LazyGit
Orbitals. So no they don't orbit. There are regions of space around the nucleus in which there is a certain likelihood of finding an electron. However one of the orbitals, p I think, is hourglass shaped and passes through the nucleus.
cheers

Actually I'm pretty sure the p orbital doesn't pass through the nucleus.

 

[LazyGit]

One of them does, I'm not sure which. I was taught this stuff in one lesson ten years ago so I can't really remember. One of the orbitals arranges the electrons in hourglass orbitals in three orientations vertical, horizontal and the other-one-al. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
cheers

 

[bobsmith1492]

Originally posted by: LazyGit
One of them does, I'm not sure which. I was taught this stuff in one lesson ten years ago so I can't really remember. One of the orbitals arranges the electrons in hourglass orbitals in three orientations vertical, horizontal and the other-one-al. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
cheers

Ya, that was the p-orbital.
http://www.corrosionsource.com/handbook/periodic/e_orbits.htm

I guess you could consider them as "passing through" the nucleus only if you're assuming the electrons are actually travelling around these orbitals like the earth around the sun, which they really aren't... that's just the region of probability of finding the electron, right?

What exactly do electrons do? Is it known for sure?

 

[f95toli]

Well, yes and no. The "shape" of orbitals are related to the probabilty of finding electrons in that region. This is e.g. imporant when forming chemical bonds.
However, it is not quite that simple. Remember that the main quatum number n does not have a "shape" as such; it is just an energy level. s- p- d- etc indicate "sub-levels" with different angular momentum, i.e. you have: 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 3d (and these levels can in turn split up into even more sub-levels).

Using low-temperature STM it is possible to quite litteraly "see" the shape of the orbitals of the othermost electrons in some materials.

 

[slurmsmackenzie]

Originally posted by: stogez

Originally posted by: Bladen
Pluto, the dwarf planet, does not travel perfectly parallel with the otehr "real" planets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Orbit

Which is one of the reasons it is no longer a "real" planet. It was probably not a part of the original solar system and got caught by the Sun's gravity at a later time thus explaining its retarded orbit

pluto is a member of the keiper (sp?) belt holding many different "ice dwarfs" orbiting on different planes more similar to that of a comet than a planet. new herizons is on it's way there now to test the atmosphere looking back at pluto as it passes and recording the way the uv rays reflect. science channel keeps me up til 3am

 

[bobsmith1492]

Originally posted by: f95toli
Well, yes and no. The "shape" of orbitals are related to the probabilty of finding electrons in that region. This is e.g. imporant when forming chemical bonds.
However, it is not quite that simple. Remember that the main quatum number n does not have a "shape" as such; it is just an energy level. s- p- d- etc indicate "sub-levels" with different angular momentum, i.e. you have: 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 3d (and these levels can in turn split up into even more sub-levels).

Using low-temperature STM it is possible to quite litteraly "see" the shape of the orbitals of the othermost electrons in some materials.

So do the electrons literally orbit, in which case electrons in the p-orbital (and others) actually pass through the nucleus, or do they somehow just fill their energy areas without really orbiting or... ?

 

[StopSign]

Electrons don't orbit as in physically moving from Point A to Point B. They have a probability to "exist" within regions in space. How an electron travels from Point A to Point B is unknown.

As far as I know, there is still no physical model of the atom or electron. Quantum mechanics is just pure math.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Originally posted by: StopSign
Electrons don't orbit as in physically moving from Point A to Point B. They have a probability to "exist" within regions in space. How an electron travels from Point A to Point B is unknown.

As far as I know, there is still no physical model of the atom or electron. Quantum mechanics is just pure math.

Ok, thank you.