Talk:Orbital plane

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What a wimpy article

Pfffttt! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.166.179.110 (talk) 00:54, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Misleading? Or am I just dumb?

The second sentence, first paragraph says "All of those orbits [of every planet, comet, or asteroid orbiting the sun] line up with each other making a semi-flat disk called the orbital plane". All of them orbit in the same single plane? I don't know much of anything about the solar system but that sounds incredibly improbable. That's what it sounds like the author is saying though. If that's not the case this sentence should be changed to something like "Each of these orbits lines up with itself making...". Someone with a clue about astronomy should edit this article for clarity and/or accuracy. Unfortunately I am not such a someone.

Cfwschmidt (talk) 00:11, 4 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"Semi flat" is correct: as solar systems (or galaxies) evolve from a 3D ball of gas/matter, collisions between the particles means that momentum in most directions cancels out, leaving a spinning, almost-flat disk. I don't think that this is an easy concept, but helps to understand why most of the planet in our solar system are in almost the same orbital plane, spinning in the same direction. One of the usual video-sharing sites has several nice simulations showing this, of which that by MinutePhysics is one. Klbrain (talk) 20:54, 23 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Orbital plane/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Article on orbital planes does not mention variation among planetary orbits. To what degree do various planets' orbital planes depart from Earths orbital plane? Is this more or less random? Ujerdr 14:32, 10 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Last edited at 14:32, 10 March 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 01:56, 30 April 2016 (UTC)