PV Gap

Eva Said:

Which of the following is true for the ring systems of all the giant planets in the solar system?

We Answered:

gotta be C. the rings cannot exist north or south of the equatorial plane. But now I'm gonna have to go Wikipedia to find out what is a Roche limit. C ya!

p.s. OK, I'm back. B is false because it is backwards. INSIDE the Roche limit, matter tends to be broken up and dispersed (like the rings) because of the tidal forces. Outside the Roche limit, matter tends to coalesce to form satellites.

Rodney Said:

What are all the planets in our solar system?

We Answered:

Mecury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
pluto was recently catogorized as a dwarf planet since it does not hold the qualities of a typical planet

Tommy Said:

What is the point of all the other planets in our solar system?

We Answered:

Probably the same point as the Moon - it gives us curious apes a destination to go to, eventually. Actually, the planets are accumulation of resources, like our own planet...once we use up all the resources here, we will need to go elsewhere to find more minerals, precious metals, etc. The Moon will have few to offer, so we'll need to aim further to find more.

They don't exist to stabilize the solar system, it could exist with 1 planet, or 25. Each orbit is stable with itself, it doesn't need the others, nor are affected much by them, as all other planets interact with the Sun, not each other. Gravity is a weak force, so there's not much mutual interference with each other.

- The Gremlin Guy -

Julio Said:

Why are all planets in our solar system basically on the same plane?

We Answered:

As the cloud of gas and dust that formed our solar system collapsed to form the sun, it began to spin. The spinning motion formed a disk, in which the remaining material formed into the planets and asteroids. This is why they all orbit in the same direction and along the same plane.

Comets are from the Oort cloud, which extends in every direction around the solar system, so their orbits are random, and not on the same plane as the planets.

Catherine Said:

Do all planets in our solar system revolve around the same exact center of gravity as each other...?

We Answered:

It's different for all of them, especially Jupiter, e.g. Jupiter is 1/10,000 the mass of the sun, so if you take the distance from Jupiter to the sun (816,520,800 km at aphelion) and divide that by 10,000, then the center of gravity it revolves around is 81,652 km from the suns core, well below it's surface, but still enough to make it wobble.