why is the order of planets so,as is today in our solar system?
156002
The solar system was formed from the debris of earlier stars.  As the dust and particles collided and formed bigger chunks, they began to exert a gravitational attraction to each other.  These particles began to rotate around a central point (what would eventually become the sun).\n\nThe sun was formed from the majority of the matter.  Once the sun reached critical mass, it started the fusion reaction that powers the sun still to this day (Fusion of hydrogen into helium).\n\nThe gravitational pull of the sun caused the terrestrial (or rocky) planets to form from the heavier debris that was drawn in closer (and in a faster orbit).  These planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.\n\nThe lighter gasses didn't have as much gravitational attraction as the heavier minerals and these gasses formed the gas giants of our solar system (much further out away from the sun and in a slower orbit).  These planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.\n\nThe last planet, Pluto, is an exception.  It was formed of the left-over debris at the outer edge of the solar system.  It reallys isn't a true planet, more of a Keiper belt object; like a large asteroid.
147445
Its all relative..usually we use sun as a point of a reference when we talk about relative size of planets which circle it. Pluto is about the same size as mercury.
227911
The inner planets are the 4 planets who's orbits are closest to the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars).  The asteroid belt (and millions and millions of miles) seperates the inner planets from the outer planets.\n\nCompared to the distances in between the outer planets, the inner planets might as well be right next to eachother, the distances really start getting big in the outer solar system.
659116
what? further than the earth in relation to the sun, would be mars. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and one we cant quite see yet.\nI'm not sure i understand your ?, but i hope this helps. sometime pluto comes closer than neptune, because of the orbits. click on this link, then scole down the page it brings you to.\nhttp://www.sciencemonster.com/planets.html
716811
Its both ways actually-an asteroid and a planet.pluto circles the sun.this is the reason why its called a planet.but it also cuts across the eliptical orbit (if you know what i mean)while the others dont.There was a big debate on what pluto really was.anyway right now i think pluto is considered an asteroid and not a planet.
102408
The solar system is believed to be approximately 4.6 billion years old. We do not know in what order they were formed other than it was approximately 100 million years after the sun was formed.
852535
yes of course it matters to me .it belonged to our solar system for so long and now the scientists have thrown it away because it does not satisfy their definition of planets???\nit is very disheartening to say that our family now consists of 8 planets only.
91267
You are referring to a concept in planetary astronomy call inclination of orbit.  The "disc" that the Earth revolves around the Sun on is called the ecliptic plane.\n\nTechnically speaking every other planet has some orbtial inclination or tilt of their disc.  But it is very small so the eight major planets are said to orbit in roughly the same plane (ecliptic).  \n\nPluto is different.  Its orbital inclination angle is about 18 degrees with respect to the ecliptic.  That's big compared to the other planets. \n\nNow the question is why are the eight major planets in the same plane?  Why is Pluto not?\n\nWhen the solar system formed it was originally a giant sphere of gas and dust and over time was gravitationally attracted into a compacted sphere.  When this happens systems need to conserve angular momentum.  This results in the sphere becoming flattened.  This flattened sphere now looks like a disc.  The disc is roughly the ecliptic plane. An analogy to this scenario is pizza dough being spun by a chef into a disc. \n\nPluto, it is believed, was probably originally part of this disc but later had an intereaction with another object which since changed its orbit.
9741
By size and orbit, mainly.\n\nOrbit comes first. Kepler noticed that the gap between Mars and Jupiter was wider than could have been expected, Johann Titius described a systematic and J.E. Bode formulated a rule for the distances of the planetary orbits from the sun. This rule works fine for the inner planets, the missing planet at the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, but places Neptun on a intermediary orbit (about half the distance expectedby the Titius-Bode rule).\n\nWhen Pluto was discovered, its mean distance was about the expected value for the planet behind Uranus, which is why it was classified as a planet.\n\nWith the discovery of Sedna, Pluto now is regarded as a Kuyper Belt object rather than a regular planet.\n\n\nAsteroids come as numerous bodies occupying broadly the same orbit around the sun, without a central planet.\n\n\nBTW, the Earth-Moon system is an oddball in itself, basically a binary planet with the gravity centre between earth and moon forming the planetary orbit around the sun.\n\n\nSize, or surface gravity, is the other criterium. There is no fixed value where a planet begins and planetoids end, but 1/10th of earth gravity could be a useful rule of thumb.\n\nSeveral of the larger moons (earth's, Titan and at least for of Jupiter's moons) would qualify as planets if they had their own solar orbits rather than orbiting a heavier planet. Most of the smaller moons are de facto asteroid/planetoids caught by the  planets.
859287
I'm certainly no expert, but from my high school physics days I recall something about Bode's law.  You might be able to Google or Wikipedia it.  It was an explanation, in Newtonian physics terms, of why the planets are where they are.
408660
solar system is the system which includes the sun and the nine planets along with the satellites of each planet , asteroids , meteorites.
1034104
Yes, how could it be possible that we are the only planet that is positioned currently and close enough to a star in the entire universe?  Plus on a more spiritual aspect there is scripture upon the matter... "And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth.  And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten."
598363
Well, they go in diameter, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus Neptune Earth Venus Mars Mercury Pluto, so \nJ S U N E V M M P  so why not have: \nJust Say Upto Nine Easy Very Merry Mighty Planets
599254
The Sun, its pull is making the planets in this system orbit.
321763
the system of a star called sun is is called Solar system.....\nall the systems of stars with planets around them are not solar systems.\nSolar system is name of our sun planets system
150101
The small size and weird, distant orbit makes it feel more or less like a stray double-moon. I'm not sure why it's considered a planet really - maybe it's the smaller body that rotates it, Charon, that makes us class it as a planet, maybe it's because we looked for a reason for the deviations in the planets orbits and prematurely labeled it planet. As for me, I do - mostly because Pluto is always mentioned as a planet.
986191
Actually, all of them simultaneously. Sun and the planets were all formed from the remnant gas cloud of the supernova explosion of a star much larger than Sun. While most of the gas cloud fell back to the center forming our Sun, the most dominant center of the materials in the peripheral volume ended up forming Jupiter, the largest planet.\n\nTherefore when the solar system is in its nascent stage of formation, if you see which proto-planet has formed ahead of other planets, you may see Jupiter to be the first, but other planets have also started developing, depending on what's your yardstick of measurement for calling an object a planet.\n\nClearly 4-5 billion years ago, when the protoplanets were still under development, there were still numerous smaller size objects whirling around Sun and the gas cloud would still not have settled.