Show The Solar System

Craig Said:

how does the solar system show there is a God and how does losing a love one show that there isnt a God?

We Answered:

Losing a loved one helped me know there IS a God.

Reginald Said:

Which one of the planets in our solar system show signs of ice being available on their surface?

We Answered:

only Mars..

Eva Said:

Why do models of the solar system show the Earth only half lit up during the Summer Solstice?

We Answered:

Look at a diagram of how the Earth is lit by the Sun on the northern hemisphere summer solstice. Pick out the arctic circle. You can see that someone standing on the arctic circle will be carried round by the Earth's rotation in a day, but always remaining in sunlight. Now look at latitude 60º N. Virtually the whole of that line of latitude is sunlit, so a person there would be in sunlight for 20 or so hours a day. As you move southwards, the proportion of each line of latitude in sunlight gradually reduces until you reach the equator, where half of the line of latitude (the equator) is lit, so there is 12 hours of daylight.

Vincent Said:

Every model of the solar system shows all the planets on almost the same plane. Why is this?

We Answered:

When the solar system was formed from a giant gas cloud, the cloud began rotating. Eventually all the gas formed into a disk called the "accretion disk". The sun and all the planets were formed out of eddies in this disk. Since a disk is flat, all the planets were in the same plane. Pluto is the exception, but then, pluto isn't a planet any more, is it?.

Gary Said:

Do the planets really orbit the sun on the same axis like illustrations of the solar system show?

We Answered:

Yes, all the planets orbit the sun in the same *general* plane (..called 'the ecliptic'..) Before it was demoted, Pluto had the most eccentric orbital path around the sun.

Couple of reasons for the common orbital plane :: (1)the planets and sun formed within a region of a vast nebula that already had a rotational component. Some of that motion was passed along to the newly forming system; (2)the sun is the most massive object in the solar system and its resultant gravity has helped guide and hold the planets in their orbits

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