What keeps the Earth and other planets orbit around the sun?

Answer 1

The Law of Gravitation explains the fundamental reason why the planets all revolve around the sun. Since the sun is much more massive than any of the plantes, they are attracted continuously toward the sun. Thus they follow an orbit which is a compromise between the tendency of their own motion to carry them away into space ( inertia ) and the gravitational pull of the sun.

Answer 2

As gravity from the sun pulls the earth towards the sun our own centrifugal force pulls us away resulting in a balance of forces or equilibrium, causing the earth to orbit the sun the way it does.

Answer 3

The planets and other objects in orbit around the sun have a tangential velocity realtive to the sun, this has been the case since the formation of the early solar system. There is little to slow the planets down in space, so they will keep orbiting the sun at more or less the same velocity.

Answer 4

No force is required in order to keep a moving object moving. Any object

continues moving in a straight line at constant speed until a force makes it

change its speed or direction.

The Earth is constantly changing the direction of its motion around the sun.

The force that makes it do that is the gravitational force between the Earth

and the Sun.

Answer 5

It doesn't take anything to keep the earth rotating.

Our experience in everyday life teaches us that a moving object with no force acting

on it stops moving. But it turns out that our everyday experience is wrong, and that

statement isn't true. More than 500 years ago, Galileo was able to set up demonstrations

to show that a moving object with no forces on it keeps moving, at steady speed in

a straight line. The same goes for rotating or spinning objects.

The earth is rotating today because it was rotating yesterday, and there's nothing

out there to stop it.

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Now that we've told you that part, here's the other part: There IS actually something

out there to stop it, and the earth's rotation is slowing down.

The gravitational attraction of the moon raises a bulge of water on the earth that

we call the "tides". Since the tidal bulge is always trying to point toward the moon,

the earth rotates 'inside' the bulge of water; the tides are scraping against the earth,

slowing it down. The result is that the rotation period is getting longer, and the length

of the day is increasing, something like .001 second longer every 100 years.

Answer 6

The gravitational force between the sun and the planets keeps them in orbit. This force pulls the planets towards the sun, while their forward motion causes them to move in a curved path, resulting in an orbit.

Answer 7

The Earth is kept in orbit around the sun because of gravity. The balance has kept the Earth in this orbit a long time.

Answer 8

gravitational pull

Answer 9

Gravitational pull keeps the earth going around the sun. It's like the moon going around the earth, only on a larger scale.