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Asked by anon-245455 to Sam, Samantha, Nicol, Lori-Ann, Liam, David on 11 Mar 2020.
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Samantha Faircloth answered on 11 Mar 2020:
Hello Ned, that is a fantastic question! There is a lot of gravitational attraction out in space and that is what controls the current position of all of the planets. If one of the planets was knocked out of its current position (perhaps by a giant asteroid hitting it!) then, over time, it would affect the position of other planets. They would all need to re-stabilise to find a position that could physically support them. We know that Jupiter has moved over time and hasn’t always been where it is now relative to the Sun! : -)
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Lori-Ann Foley answered on 11 Mar 2020:
Because all the planets affect each other, pulling on each other with their gravity, if one planet disappeared then the pulls from the remaining planets would be different and the planets would move until they reached a new stable position where everything was balanced again.
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David Sobral answered on 11 Mar 2020:
Depends a lot on which planet. If it was Jupiter for example, a lot would happen very quickly. If it was Mercury, not a lot would happen. So if you kick out a very massive planet much more will happen.
The cool thing is that we can use our computers and do that: then let time pass into the future and know exactly what would happen. It’s one of the things you get to do and learn in an Astronomy or Physics degree at University!
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Sam Frampton answered on 12 Mar 2020:
Jupiter is really heavy, so it pulls a lot on the other planets, if Jupiter was knocked out of it’s orbit, it might pull in other planets on its way out!
But because the sun is so massive compared to the planets (it’s about 300,000 times heavier than the earth!) it affects the planets much more than the other planets.
You should check out a game called ‘Universe Sandbox’ it lets you try things like this!
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