What force provides the centripetal force between the earth and the sun?

Answer 1

The force that makes the Earth travle through space is the suns gravitantional pull on the Earth. The way the Earth travels through space is by the suns gravitational pull on the Earth making it go around the sun.

Answer 2

As far as we are aware, there are NO astronomical bodies in perfectly circular orbits. EVERY orbit is elliptical. Elliptical orbits are the natural order of things.

If a planetary system had formed with the planets in highly eccentric orbits, then over the course of a few billion years, all but a couple of the planets would have been perturbed out of the system, or into the star itself.

In a planetary system in which by some far-fetched chance the planets had developed in perfectly circular orbits, then any gravitational perturbation - such as a big solar flare, an asteroid impact, or just the gravitational interaction between the other planets - would have nudged each of the planets into elliptical orbits.

A perfectly circular orbit would be like balancing a table on a needle; ANY disturbance would spoil the balance.

Answer 3

Planets are kept in their orbits by the sun's gravity and by their own angular momentum. Without gravity they would fly away into space, and without angular momentum they would fall into the sun. It takes both to keep them in orbit.

Answer 4

The sun's huge amount of mass results in an attractive force known as gravity. The earth is not moving fast enough nor is big enough to escape the sun's gravity well (think of a gravity well as those big funnel shaped coin donation acceptors at the mall with the coin as the earth) or cause the sun to orbit around the earth. The earth is, fortunately, moving fast enough to avoid falling into our star.

It may be helpful to think of the earth as a ball on a string that has been struck resulting in the ball "orbiting" the pole in which the string is tied to. As long as the ball maintains a critical velocity or speed, the ball will continue to "orbit" the pole. If the ball slows down below the critical threshold, the ball will begin to approach the pole as its orbit deteriorates. This example works because the earth's gravity pulls the ball toward the ground and seems to pull it toward the pole.

The earth affects the sun's position in space as well, as do all the planets, becoming apparent in a very slight wobble of the sun. Due to the sheer difference of size and mass, the resulting effects on the sun are very minimal.

Answer 5

Gravity. The sun's gravity is so strong, that it keeps the planets in their orbits. think of the sun as an orange on a blanket that is held up only in the corners. The orange makes a dent in the blanket, a bowl shape. If you rolled a grape throught the "bowl" it would go down toward the orange. But if you rolled it fast enough, it would just keep going. The planets are stuck in the sun's orbit because are going fast enough not to crash into the sun, but slow enough so that they cannot escape the sun's gravity. Hope that helps.

Answer 6

The Sun's gravity.

Additional answer

But the reason they go on moving is that there is nothing to stop them. On Earth things stop moving because of friction, but in space there is no friction so, according to Newton's 1st Law of Motion which says that a body will continue in its state of motion unless acted on by an external force, the planets just go on.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Why_do_planets_keep_on_orbiting_the_sun#ixzz1E8DIPMQr

Answer 7

Gravity causes the earth's path to bend into a closed loop around the sun.

Without gravity, the earth would continue to move at constant speed, but in a straight line,
away from the sun's neighborhood.

Answer 8

The sun is not elliptical; it's almost a perfect sphere. It does bulge somewhat at the equator, just as the earth does; but you would probably bulge around the middle too if your equator were spinning at more than 3,700 miles per hour. Technically, the sun is an oblate spheroid. It's the orbits of the planets, asteroids, and periodic comets ... their paths around the sun ... that are elliptical. The reason is too technical and extensive to go into here; it's basically the fact that if you take Newton's Law of Gravitation, and take enough time and calculus with it, you discover that it predicts that closed orbits around the sun must be elliptical. So the short answer is: That's how gravity works.

Answer 9

The sun and earth or any planet in our solar system exert an equal and opposite force... the inward being gravity and the outward being the centripetal force of the moving projectile (in this case Earth)..

The force is equal or nearly equal to each other..and unless an external force tips off either bodies or there is a drastic change in body mass (significant weight increase or loss...but not as limited as cosmic dust) it will continue to travel in its said motion(s)

Answer 10

The force that keeps earth orbiting the sun is the mutual force of gravitation

between earth and the sun.

We're lucky that it's the only force required, because it's the only force that exists.