Planetary motion

Here’s something that has bothered me. Let’s see if I can explain in text pictures. :-)

The planets are, as we know:

Sun   Mercury  Venus  Earth  Mars  Jupiter  Saturn  Uranus  Neptune  Pluto

Yes, I consider Pluto to be a planet, deal with it. I reckon Pluto was only stripped of its planet status since it’s orbit was too weird to be easily explained.

Now if one is to look at our solar system from the edge, the planets are like this:

Ju      Ea            Sun   Me   Ve      Ma

(omitting the outer planets; and shown in random placement with sun in the middle to simulate their orbits)

Or, to put some lines in there, the planets are like this:

Ju------Ea------------Sun---Me---Ve------Ma

This is why planets shown in a star chart follow the “ecliptic”, the curvy line that represents the path of the sun in the sky.

Why is this?

Why is it not something like this:

                              Ma
                             /
         Ea                 /
            \              /
               \          /
                  \      /
                     \  /
                  ----Sun---Me
              ----      \
          ----            \
      ----                  \
  ----                        \
Ju                              Ve

With the planets in an orbital motion akin to electrons around an atom.

Why are they flat?

Why are they flat?

So basically you’re asking why a large mass of matter spinning on an axis has all matter in its mass spinning around that specific axis and all matter in its vicinity is influenced by gravitational attraction to rotate around that same axis?

Sounds like that may be the explanation – it was a lot of spinning gunk. These days? There’s a lot less in between the planets. Certainly nothing I’d call a “large mass of matter”, except perhaps the asteroid belt, but that might be – in reality – a failed planet.

Sounds like that may be the explanation – it was a lot of spinning gunk. These days? There’s a lot less in between the planets.

Blown outward by the solar wind, according to the theories.

Certainly nothing I’d call a “large mass of matter”, except perhaps the asteroid belt, but that might be – in reality – a failed planet.

Or the partially organised beginnings of one gathering from fragments of a collision between a couple of other items that formed the earth-moon binary as per another theory
Or you could go with the gravity of Jupiter mucking things up.

If the question is why have they formed in a reasonably flat arrangement then, yes, the theory is because of the way they formed – to use the term you did, it began as a lot of spinning gunk.

The fact it’s spinning is a key point. On the one hand the angular momentum of each little bit wants to send it soaring off in whatever direction, on the other hand the gravity of the central mass is keeping that momentum in check. The result is that the gunk spreads out into a flat-ish disc – which then coalesces at different points to form the planets, and their moons. As they start to form, their gravities increase with each tiny bit that gets added to the whole, and thus they mop up more and more of the material between them.

So the spin causes the flat spinning disc of gunk, and the fact that it’s a flat spinning disc of gunk is why the planets are more or less on a level-ish plane. Any of the material that doesn’t become one of the planets or moons is either (as Steve said) blown outward by the solar wind – we’re talking something like four+ billion years for our solar system, after all – or forms some of the many tiny bits of rock that are out there. Or both; gets slowly pushed outwards and goes on to form part of one of the many bits of rock that are out there !

Of course when I pointed at one planetary history theory link…

as per another theory

…I was sort of wondering whether Rick would do something along the lines of this

Wasn’t “Planetry in Motion” a hit for Johnny Tillotson (born April 20, 1939 in Jacksonville, Florida) in 1961?

Some illumination there?

Not a well made site, but it has a pretty good explanation – http://atropos.as.arizona.edu/aiz/teaching/nats102/mario/solar_system.html

Wasn’t “Planetry in Motion” a hit for Johnny Tillotson.. ..in 1961?

Prefab Sprout: “King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll” all time favourite mondegreen¹, done by a group named in the same fashion.

¹ Hot dog, jump and fart, Albert Kirklees

Prefab Sprout: “King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll”

I could never fathom out what “as oracle” meant in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Deep Blue Something’s one-hit-wonder, until I asked my daughter – IIRC.

I was sort of wondering whether Rick would do something along the lines of this

Ah! Accretion! I was trying to remember that word in my comment but just couldn’t get it to bubble to the top of my memory banks.

@John I recognise the song, but couldn’t work out what you meant until I looked at the lyrics. Nice example of a misheard lyric/mondegreen – as was Steve’s.

@John I recognise the song, but couldn’t work out what you meant until I looked at the lyrics.

The lyrics is the easy way – listening to the phrase is much more difficult! It’s such an unlikely thing to say in UK English, particularly paranthetically.

@John I recognise the song, but couldn’t work out what you meant until I looked at the lyrics. Nice example of a misheard lyric/mondegreen – as was Steve’s.

I saw the mondegreen pun in John’s reply and groaned then decided to let the Prefab Sprout based offering loose. It’s always struck me as ironic that King of Rock n’ Roll is so easy to mishear when Prefab Sprout were apparently named as a misheard lyric.

The lyrics is the easy way – listening to the phrase is much more difficult! It’s such an unlikely thing to say in UK English, particularly paranthetically.

I think depends on your mind and the mindset you’re in at the time. As a child word play was a family pastime, now married and discovered early on that the wife has the same mindset.

and discovered early on that the wife has the same mindset.

Ever played Shiritori? A little harder in English but not impossible (Japanese language construction practically made this game obligatory).

I could never fathom out what “as oracle” meant in Breakfast at Tiffany’s,

Damn you.

It’s playing on the radio right now, and I hear what you mean. And I can’t unhear it.

So I’m going to post one that I thought when I was a child:

• “Fools” said I, “You do not know, silence like a casserole. Hear my words that I might teach you, take my arms that I might reach you”.

Fools” said I, “You do not know, silence like a casserole.

I read that out and got a wry grin from across the room, and “oh yes, mondegreen”
and offers “I have a one inch head another on a lead”

Damn you.

Not a nice curse to make!

The Lady Mondegreen!

My older sister, now in her vascular-dementia dotage, used to sing at Christmas: “We three Kings from Orient Tower”.

At least the geography was right!

Silence like a casserole – slow cooker’s fine, but these bloody fan ovens … !

Hey, just on TV, BBC 4 Little snippet:- “Bride eyes” :)

Gladly, the cross-eyed bear.

Aah father, wi’ t’ chart in heaven.

I grew up in Yorkshire…

Aah father, wi’ t’ chart in heaven.

… which brings nicely back on-topic!

Aah father, wi’ t’ chart in heaven.

I grew up in Yorkshire…

For those that didn’t have the advantage of an upbringing in Gods Own County if you want to say it correctly you could try “Aah father, wi’ tchart in heaven.”
You see the t’ is not really pronounced it’s more of a glottal stop.

… which brings nicely back on-topic!

You’re a star.

That’s a small euro-joke.

the t’ is not really pronounced it’s more of a glottal stop.

Indeed. A glo’l stop in fact.