The Earth revolves around the Sun due to the attractive force of gravity. This force keeps the Earth in orbit around the Sun in balance between its movement and its distance from the solar body.
The simple reason why the Earth orbits around the Sun is that our star exerts a gravitational force on it. This is based on what is called universal gravitation, discovered by Mr. Isaac Newton. In short: the more massive an object is, the more it strongly attracts others towards it.
The Sun, with its enormous mass, pulls all celestial objects in the solar system towards it, including our good old Earth. Without this gravitational attraction, the Earth would head off wandering elsewhere in space, without a stable orbit, and goodbye to seasons, nice weather, and probably life as we know it. This attraction keeps the Earth firmly in place on its trajectory around the Sun, year after year—it's quite convenient.
The Earth was launched into orbit thanks to an initial velocity acquired during the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. The cloud of gas and dust from which it originated was already rotating; when it contracted, its rotation sped up, much like when a skater spins faster by pulling in their arms. This speed propelled our planet into motion around the Sun, tracing an elliptical path. And since there is no air in space to slow it down, the Earth has quietly maintained its orbital momentum since that time, gliding at about 30 km per second around our star, never slowing down.
The Earth orbits the Sun due to the balance between two opposing forces: gravitational force and centrifugal force. Gravity is the attraction exerted by the Sun that seeks to pull our planet towards it. On the other hand, the centrifugal force comes from the Earth's movement, spinning at high speed around the Sun: it is this motion that pushes our planet away from the Sun. The two forces balance out just enough to maintain a stable trajectory; otherwise, either the Earth would shoot straight into space (goodbye Sun!), or it would end up being pulled in by our favorite star (farewell us!). This delicate balance explains why we continuously orbit the Sun without falling into it or getting lost in the distance.
The Earth does not orbit the Sun in a perfect circle, but rather in a slightly elongated orbit shaped like an ellipse. The ellipse resembles a flattened circle, with two foci, one of which is occupied by the Sun. Johannes Kepler established simple rules called the laws of Kepler, which precisely describe this motion. According to these laws, the Earth moves faster when it is close to the Sun (perihelion) and slows down as it moves away from it (aphelion), somewhat like a swing that accelerates at the bottom of its motion and slows down as it ascends. These variations explain in particular why the seasons do not all last exactly the same amount of time.
The Earth is not only attracted by the Sun, it also feels the gravitational pull of other neighboring planets and celestial objects. For example, the Moon significantly influences the Earth, creating tides through its gravitational attraction on our oceans. Jupiter, with its enormous mass, also exerts a small influence, slightly altering the Earth's orbit over very long periods. Even more distant planets like Saturn or Uranus have subtle but real effects on our planet's trajectory. These ongoing interactions create slight disturbances, leading to minimal but noticeable changes in the Earth's orbit over the long term and contributing to a dynamic balance within the solar system.
The Earth travels approximately 940 million kilometers each year in its orbit around the Sun, which corresponds to an average speed of nearly 107,000 km/h!
The Earth does not revolve around the Sun in a perfect circle, but instead follows a slightly flattened elliptical path, resulting in a slight variation in distance from the Sun throughout the year.
The perihelion is the moment when the Earth is closest to the Sun (about 147 million kilometers), while the aphelion is when it is farthest away (about 152 million kilometers). These differences slightly influence the seasons, but not as much as the tilt of the Earth's axis.
In addition to orbiting the Sun, the Earth itself rotates on its own axis at over 1,600 km/h at the equator, and yet we do not perceive this movement because it is so regular and constant.
According to Kepler's first law, planets (including Earth) follow an elliptical orbit around the Sun, with the Sun located at one of the two foci. This elliptical shape arises from the balance between the gravitational force exerted by the Sun and the orbital velocity of the planets.
If the Earth were to suddenly stop, the Sun's gravity would immediately cause our planet to gradually fall towards it, resulting in catastrophic consequences. Life as we know it could not continue, as temperatures, climates, and oceans would be severely disrupted.
Sure! Here’s the translation: "Yes, it's not just the planets that orbit around the Sun. Many objects also evolve around the Sun, such as asteroids (in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter), comets, and the numerous objects found in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud."
The average speed of the Earth's rotation around the Sun is about 30 kilometers per second, which is approximately 108,000 kilometers per hour. This speed allows the Earth to complete a full orbit in just over 365 days, thus defining our year.
Even though the Earth orbits the Sun at high speed (about 30 km/s), we do not perceive this movement directly because it is uniform and constant. Just like in an airplane traveling at a constant speed, our bodies only feel changes in motion when it accelerates or decelerates abruptly.
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