• Question: why are some planets further away from the sun than others?

    Asked by anon-182008 on 18 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Claire Donald

      Claire Donald answered on 18 Jun 2018:


      There are 8 planets in our solar system and these all travel around the sun in a path called an orbit. Their orbits are shaped like a squashed circle (an ellipse) and the further away from the sun they are, the longer their orbit is. They are kept in their orbits by gravity. If gravity wasn’t there, the planets would drift off into deep space. The planets closer to sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are warmer, smaller and rockier than the further away planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) which are colder, larger and mostly made of gas.

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