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Question
Why do the planets orbit the Sun on a flat plane rather than different paths or levels, much the way electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom?
The planets orbit in a flat plane because they formed from a spinning disk of gas and dust, sometimes called the solar nebula. Astronomers can observe similar disks surrounding young stars today. The disks themselves are a natural part of the formation of stars from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust. As the cloud shrinks, it spins faster (an example of the conservation of angular momentum), and much of the material falls into the disk rather than inward on the forming star. (Incidentally, don't take the comparisons between the orbits of the planets and the orbits of electrons in atoms too seriously. The analogy is not a very good one, and the behaviors of electrons and planets follow different laws of physics).
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
February 17, 2004
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