Why don't planets collide with the sun?
818196
caus they hv fixed orbits n they kind of follow trafic rules!\nlol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
62444
With no solid surface for either of these planets, an 'earth'quake would not happen in the traditional sense.  I am sure that there must be some incredible turbulence throughout the entire fluidic interior of the planets, and especial with Jupiter, the core may be solid and made up of metallic hydrogen.  I expect when comet Schumaker-Levy 9 slammed in to Jupiter, it must have set of some tremendous shock waves, but the planet aborbed it with barely a flinch.
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.
4539
These answers "seem" correct. But Im not sure thats really the case. Within our solar system there is still gravity. What do you think is holding all the planets in place? Perhaps between systems that might be more true.\n\nThe problem is getting a large mass moving fast enough to really be productive. You still need loads of energy to get a real spaceship moving. We just dont have that tech yet. \n\nRight now scientists are working on a plasma engine. Check it out.
186428
As far as planets go, Mercury.  All the time.  No planet ever gets closer.  I'm not quite sure what these folks are trying to pull with "pluto" but the closest it ever gets to the sun is still over 26 times farther away than the earth's orbit.\n\nComets and asteroids can get really close to the sun, in fact there is a class of comets that we call "sungrazers" they actually fall into the sun and never return.
795687
Some planets are too hot for water, some are too cold. The larger planets are made from methane and other gases.
354530
Each planet is attracted to the Sun by the Sun's gravity.\n\nHowever each planet is traveling at a certain speed tangential to its orbit. \n\nThe sun's gravity curves (pulls in) the trajectory of the planet.\n\nThe faster the planet is moving, the further it can get away from the Sun.\n\nA kind of balance between the speed of the planet and the Sun's gravity at the location of the planet result in the final orbit of the planet.\n\nIf we were to speed up a planet, its orbit would move outwards.\n\nIf we were to slow down a planet, its orbit would move inwards (towards the Sun).\n\nCordially,\nJohn\nhttp://www.GodSci.org
798886
Gravity keeps the celestial bodies from crashing into each other, along with their velocities, vectors and other planetary orbital forces.  A simple explanation is that the sun is a moving target, travelling around the Milky Way Galaxy.  The gravity pulls the earth into the sun, but the earth 'misses' the sun so to speak.  The result is an elliptical orbit.  The velocity of the earth is not great enough to escape the sun's gravity.
66324
If the sun were part of a binary system, it would revolve around the barycenter of the binary system. We would be able to dected this movment by comparing the Sun's position to other nearby stars and to more distant stars. Since we don't dectect any such movement around the barycenter, that means that any such compainion star must be very very small, making the barycenter close to the sun's positon, or very far away, making the motion of the sun about the barycenter very slow. \n\nNeither of these conditions are true of any other binary star system we see, so no.
730409
The sun and earth exert equal gravitational forces on each other. If you ignore all the other interacting bodies, the sun and earth rotate about a common center of mass (which is actually located inside the sun). Contrary to what one answerer said, the earth is not in a "tenuous" or precariously balanced orbit. Our velocity in solar orbit is about 18.5 miles/sec. If we added (or subtracted) a bit of speed, say 1 mile/sec, our orbital shape would become more (or less) energetic and more elliptical. We might not like the climate change but we wouldn't fly off or crash into the sun. The velocity and the distance between the bodies determines the orbit. Change one or the other and you have a different orbit. Remove all velocity and you crash into the sun; add a huge velocity increment and you escape. (Note that if you're in a circular orbit you are traveling at escape velocity * 0.707, so that tells you how much faster you need to be going to escape.) This intrinsic stability enabled early experiments in putting objects into earth orbit before precise velocity control was available. The orbits weren't beautiful (and earth orbits will always decay due to atmospheric drag) but they were otherwise stable.
1130593
Actually the sun does not have enough mass to go supernova, after becoming a red giant its radius could actually get as big as earth's orbit, and once this happens it will lose its layers in what is called a "planetary nebula" which believe it or not has nothing to do with planets, and after this it will become a white dwarf and eventually burn out.
602001
Probably not. The Solar system is a system in balance. The Sun's gravity keeps the orbits of the planets stable. Gravitational attraction between the planets also effects their orbits, exerting the same force as the Moon exerts on the Earth's oceans. The gas giants, especially Jupiter can\ncreate "tides" that can tear a smaller planet to pieces, over time. There once was a "theory" that the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, consists of pieces of a planet called, I believe, Vulcan. If Mars WASN'T there, the\nearth would probably be located farther out from the Sun.\nVulcan might not have broken up, and would be orbiting a little closer to the Sun, but not as close as Mars. Bottom line: Earth, outside the "comfort zone" would probably be TOO COLD to sustain life.\n\nMoral of the story? Things are the way they are for a reason.
1177661
...\n\nOk, let's consider a few things. First off, in order for a celestial body to become a sun, it must achieve a critical mass where fusion occurs. Deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, starts to fuse at masses of about 0.1 solar masses. That's still 13 times the mass of Jupiter.\n\nIt's also significant to note that brown dwarves have a significant "cooling" period which can last hundreds of millions of years, since at 13 times the size of Jupiter (and at 13 x 318 x mass of the Earth), that's an awful lot of fuel to go through. Depending on your personal estimation of the age of the solar system, that might not quite fit the required timeline.
572633
Aren't the rings about planets just the debris that is spinning around them? If so, then not every planet has a ring because they don't all have space junk that is part of their gravitational field.
51021
No. Planets orbit stars.  The earth is a planet orbitting its star, the Sun.
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
469016
Great question.\n\nThe reason that they don't collide is that the moon is moving to fast.\n\nCheck this out- when the space shuttle is up in space it is only about a 100-150 miles up there. Why doesn't it just fall out of the sky and crash into the planet? \n\nWell the answer to why things don't fall out the sky is because they are in orbit- duh-. The space shuttle is not only up in space it is also moving sideways at a tremedous speed. The shuttle IS falling out of the sky, but the reason it doesn't ever hit the ground is all that sideways motion. Everytime it starts falling, the earth has moved out of the way ( sideways- remember) so it changes direction and starts to fall again, well guess what the earth has moved out of the way again. This keeps repeating and repeating. in essence anything in orbit- satelites, moons, and space shuttles are always falling but they never seem to get there. That is why the moon never hits the earth. It's important to remember that just because you are in space does not mean gravity is not pullin you down. I assure you if the shuttle was somehow able to suddenly stop it would fall out the sky like a rock. The reason the people in the space shuttle are floating is because they are falling and not because they are in space.\n\nI just have to add a little more to this statement- You know that in freefall ( you jumped out of a airplane ) you can't feel gravity and there is no up or down or sideways. The same thing with being in orbit since you are always falling you can't feel gravity either. One other thing the people that wrote first on this question really need to double check their facts. The Perfect distance and gravity cancelling out stuff is wrong. The moon could and used to be much closer to earth. It also went around earth much faster, but because of tidal action the moon has slowed down and gone into a farther out orbit. The moon even today is leaving the earth at about three inches a year. It is slowing down and so is our day- our day is getting longer because of the moon