how are the planets suspended in the universe?
479417
I understand this question as how are the planets suspended in the universe?\n \nand not how are the planets suspended in our Galaxy, or Solar system, therefore this is my response. \n\nThis is an outstanding question, actually planets are not suspended in our universe, first of all you must realize that empty space is not empty at all, just like a submarine traverses through the ocean water, our planet traverses through the universe, we are falling away from the big bang which has propelled us with respect to the power of the force of the explosion, and every linear angle falls equally at the same rate in all directions, and as we continue to travel through our universe at the rate of expansion of our universe, however with respect to the galaxy matter density which exists at the center of our galaxy our sun spins around our galaxy, while we on our planet spin around our sun with direct respect to invisible gravitational force, also the vacuum of space in which we fall is also created with respect to the energy of the expansion of our universe, only it is infinitesimally smaller particle matter energy state, and is much less dense than even gas.\n \nPerhaps most people reading this believe me wrong, however I am not, I believe a better way to rephrase this question is to ask " How are Galaxy's suspended in the Universe ", and once again they are not. as I stated above we are falling through the ether of space, which is a less dense particle matter negative vacuum energy state which is produced with direct respect to the expansion of our Universe.\n \nAnd yes with respect to any singular planet with in any Galaxy then the invisible force of the quantum gravity well which is a super massive black hole at the Galactic center of our Galaxy does in fact produce Galaxy stabilization, which keeps not only our sun in check and balance, but also our sun's gravity keeps our solar system in check and balance with in our free fall state.\n \nHowever I understood your question to go far beyond the vision which most people are observing here, as it begs the response of how does any dense planet, or any particulate mass energy state come to reside with in what appears to us as empty space, and actually while planets are influenced by gravitational attraction, it is in fact Gravity itself that functions with respect to the vacuum state which is directly produced with respect to Universal expansion which is produced with direct respect to energy moving at the speed of expansion, and it is also only light itself which attempts to follow that energy motion, and although light speed is quite fast by all accounts, it is not, and maintains variable rates with respect to its particulate energy size state of existence, however produces variable affects with respect to its existence which makes it possible for us to live, and observe it in all of its wondrous forms.\n \nTherefore to answer your question  planets are not suspended in our universe, planets, and all matter energy only exist with in our universe in a free fall state with respect to linear momentum which moves with respect to galactic direction, and with direct respect to universal expansion matter evaporates over measured time into the vacuum state of existence which we observe as the ether of deep space, and this process shall continue long into the future.\n \nWith direct respect to matter energy then, you could think of it easily as coagulated vacuum space, and once universal expansion has dissolved all matter into the vacuum state, expansion will then reach maximum, and the pressure of non existence shall push the vacuum balloon universe back onto itself, thus shrinking it, and with respect to shrinkage a super massive quantum singularity at universal center shall form, and consume all vacuum energy over time, until it has reached maximum, and holds so much energy that it can no longer support the compression of its own weight, and once again a new universe shall be
223615
if only you could bring planet to standstill then  it would surely hit sun.the movement of planet around sun create a centrifugal force resisting gravitational pull.
1015629
Your thinking is good, but you have to take into account the distance scales involved. On the scale of the entire universe, space is indeed expanding, but on the relatively tiny scale of distances in our solar system, the expansion is miniscule. Also, the gravitational forces involved with holding the planets in their orbits around the Sun easily overcomes the expansion rate.
516685
gravity shows them to move and rotate. the hubble space telescope has pics that show it in time lapse of course.
167490
The arrangements in our solar system is(from the Sun):Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto.\nNote:Pluto's orbit isn't similar to ours.\nThe solar system also includes an infinite number of stars, whom biggest is the Sun. There are plenty of Black Holes in the solar system. The gravity pull of the Black Holes are so strong, they can suck in nearby stars.\nThere are also plenty of stars bursting. We call the explosions Supernovas. After the Supernova, the star becomes a White Dwarf. There are also plenty of comets around. Among them, Halley's Comet is one example, passing over earth in 76 years at a time. Its orbit is 18 degrees to the ecliptic.\nHope this is useful and answers ur question!:)
745488
Your presumption is entirely likely my friend.  Things in the Universe that have mass and hence gravity, tend to rotate around something else.  All plants spin on their axis, all planets orbit around the Sun, the Sun rotates around the center of our Milky Way galaxy, our galaxy rotates around other galaxies in the local cluster of galaxies, the local cluster rotates around other clusters and so on right up to the Universe itself.
181847
Because planets are actually moving in relation to stars.  They are orbiting the sun.  They are also a lot closer to us than stars.  For example, when you drive, you see mountains in the distance.  You are passing those mountains at 65 miles an hour.  They appear to be going by very slowly.  But when you pass a light pole right next to you at the same speed, it appears to whizz by really fast even though it's the same speed.
565184
The planets in our system are way, way too small to do anything like this. It would take something with the density of a black hole (or perhaps just a neutron star) to do something like this.
944397
No.\nNot even space itself, in which "entities" exist, is stationary -- it's continually expanding, carrying along those things that are in it.\nMotion is the rule in the universe, nothing stands still.
884425
well the path of the planets is different for each due to the size but the are similar to a oval type shape, gravity hold the planets in orbit and as far as the asteroids they are freely moving until caught by a gravitational pull of a larger object
141087
mainly :\nstars generate light, planets only reflect\nplanets move through an orbit (around stars), stars don't
12606
Our world, Earth, is a planet, and planets are round because their gravitational field acts as though it originates from the center of the body and pulls everything toward it. With its large body and internal heating from radioactive elements, a planet behaves like a fluid, and over long periods of time succumbs to the gravitational pull from its center of gravity. The only way to get all the mass as close to planet's center of gravity as possible is to form a sphere. The technical name for this process is "isostatic adjustment."\n\nIf the shape of the Earth were due solely to gravity it would be a perfect sphere (round in 3 dimensions) but it's not, the Earth is shaped like what is called an oblate spheroid. As the Earth spins on it's axis, it produces a centrifugal force that pulls away from the Earth (in opposition to gravity)  at 90 degrees from the spin axis, this corresponds to the equatorial regions. So the Earth bulges out a little around it's middle.
57630
No.\n\nThe orbits are inclined slightly and I do not believe there is a place where they would all be *exacly* in a line.\n\nBut they get close together in the sky. The visible planets are within a couple of degrees every twenty or thirty years. (Holding your fist out will block about 10 degrees.) Such an alignment in the sky can last for a few days.
463132
Yes,it exerts gravitational pull and it is due to this gravitational pull all the planets are revolving around the sun in fixed orbits.
50650
From an astronomy standpoint...\n\nThe Sun and the planets formed out of the same protostellar material.  This protostellar material was mainly hydrogen and helium with trace amounts of heavier elements produced by past generations of stars.  Something like a shock wave of other disturbance in space causes the material to compress and become gravitationally unstable.  The contraction of the protostar begins.\n\nThe majority of the material formed the Sun the rest of it was essentially stretched out in a disk.  Local gravitational unstabilities over time coalesce to form clumps of matter in the disk.  These clumps of matter are the protoplanets.  Again over time these clumps sweep out material in the disk of the solar system and build to large masses that are the present day planets.   \n\nThat's planet formation in a nutshell...at least that's how astrophysics sees the formation of Earth like planets.
964622
If the only things involved in the position of everything in space were momentum and gravity then perhaps all the planets and galaxies and superclusters could have enough momentum to fly away forever like something can have enough momentum to have an escape velocity from the earth.  Also if everything didn't have enough momentum then it would eventually all fall back in together into a "big crunch".\n\nThere is another factor at play, though, in the expansion of the universe called "dark energy" which is something that causes space itself to expand!  So as space itself expands everything in it is carried along outwards with the expansion.  Imagine space is a table and some crumbs on it are galaxies.  As the whole table expands the little crumbs will spread apart from each other.\n\nDark energy is very hard to study and is not well understood.  The sources I cited give good overviews and should give you a better understanding.
302598
An interesting question. The question that may comes to \neveryone's mind is "IS the earth round?"  \nAnd the answer is no, at least \nnot perfectly round.  But it is round compared to your average cube, that is \nfor sure!  Now, my understanding of how solar systems form is pretty \ninadequate; all I can tell you is what I see on "Nova."  But basically, I \nguess it has to do with gravity, which is a CENTRAL FORCE.  What that means is \nthat gravity pulls things together along a straight line, and the more massive \none of the things is, the stronger it pulls.  When the earth was forming, it \nwas basically a big ball of dust left over from an exploded sun (a supernova).  \nGravity caused a lot of the matter to condense into a big fiery ball (our \nsun), but some of the dust was far enough away from the Sun so that the \nstronger forces were between planetary dust particles and not the sun.  SO, \nthey swirled together into a ball.  You can see something similar when you \nmake a painting with one of those "spin-art" machines; you put a card on the \nspinner, which whirls around real fast, and then you squirt paint on the card.  \nThe whirling causes the paint to go out away from the center (this is like the \nexplosion of the supernova) and droplets go out along an interesting path \nuntil they stop, which happens when the spinning force is equal and opposite \nto the force which attaches paint to the card (this is like gravity).  Now, if \nthe force attaching paint to the card were not so strong,eventually the drops \nwould get bigger - "planets."