Question about orbits of planets.

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This is probably as good a picture as any of how many lay-people, like myself, perceive the Solar System.



Each planet a bit of a distance further from the sun as the previous one.

Perhaps this is better



Anyway.

It always seems like the planets circle the sun in a concentric circle/just-off circle shape. Venus just outside Mercury, Earth just outside Venus, Mars just outside Earth, and so on

.----.----.----.----O

Much like the flat rings of Saturn, I suppose.

My question is this. Does any planet orbit the sun from top to bottom, rather than side to side, as we'd perceive it.

monkeyfudge

I think Pluto is different. But it's not a planet anymore.

Spear

Des wrote: »

My question is this. Does any planet orbit the sun from top to bottom, rather than side to side, as we'd perceive it.

Everything does to a small degree.

See the Ecliptic and planets section.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic

AtomicHorror

Pluto has a more noticeably tilted orbit, or ecliptic than most of the major planets. It has an angle of 17 degrees. Eris is more pronounced than this and crosses Earth's orbital plane at 44 degrees. Both are dwarf planets. I don't think any bodies have been detected with a 90 degree ecliptic.

Flukey

The traditional types of diagrams you see of the Solar System are completely offscale. They are not all uniformly positioned as often shown. It would be almost impossible to have a scale diagram of the solar system. Saturn is about twice as far from the Sun as Jupiter is, and Uranus is about twice as far from the Sun as Saturn. In terms of miles, the following are the approximate distances that each of the planets and Pluto are from the Sun:

Mercury - 35,985,274
Venus - 67,235,480
Earth - 92,961,440
Mars - 141,641,916
Jupiter - 483,654,262
Saturn - 886,725,372
Uranus - 1,784,033,186
Neptune - 2,794,479,298
Pluto - 3,674,661,328

Another common idea is that Pluto is the edge of the Solar System. In actual fact it is thought that it is only one fifty-thousandth of the way to it. :eek: What is known as the Oort cloud is often considered the edge of the Solar System. The Oort Cloud is a hypothetical region. It is believed that its size is vast, possibly up to 50,000 times in width than the distance from the Sun to Earth.

Pluto takes about 248 years to orbit the sun, and for a small part of that time it passes inside Neptune's orbit. This was the case from about 1979 to 1999. Pluto's orbit is also "tipped" at about 17° in relation to the orbits of other planets. The rotation of Uranus is basically tipped by 90° compared to the other planets. It is rotating on its side as it were.

JupiterKid

The classic textbook diagrams showing the orbits of the planets do not reflect the reality at all. The scale of our solar system alone is so vast, that to create a model of it using objects the size of sports balls would mean having Pluto several miles form the Sun.

To put it another way, take a look at the diagram below, and scroll across right to left. This gives you a real view of the sheer vast distances between the planets.
http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/solarsystem/index.html#pluto

Pgibson

There are millions of asteroids and comets orbiting at 90 deg to the ecliptic.

Jupiter plays ping-pong with comets and asteroids sending them scattering in all directions.

There is even a man-made object...Ulysses.

Jupiter's gravity was used to "bat" it high over the poles of the sun.

Right now Ulysses is looking "down" on the sun's north pole from far "above" the ecliptic.

See:
http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov/

(It's solar polar mission ends this year..after 18 years.)

.

mike65

Many reckon Plutos eccentric orbit is because it got snagged by the Suns gravity as it wandered by. The orbit is not only eliptical, its not part of the planetary plain that Mars-Neptune occupy either. Its a rogue altogether.

Mike.

se51

Des wrote: »

This is probably as good a picture as any of how many lay-people, like myself, perceive the Solar System.

Each planet a bit of a distance further from the sun as the previous one.

Perhaps this is better

Anyway.

It always seems like the planets circle the sun in a concentric circle/just-off circle shape. Venus just outside Mercury, Earth just outside Venus, Mars just outside Earth, and so on

.----.----.----.----O

Much like the flat rings of Saturn, I suppose.

My question is this. Does any planet orbit the sun from top to bottom, rather than side to side, as we'd perceive it.

Most of the planets in the solar system appear to be in horizontal alignment with each other. Only Pluto (now a 'planetoid'), has a different orbit around our star. It's more like a diagonal orbit when compared to the rest who are all more or less on the same horizontal level.