How do the Planets stay in orbit?

*smirk

 

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First, they really don't, over time.

What you are getting at with the above statement, is that we may find that certain materials are to be found at different distances from the sun, do to their weight, as our system formed.

2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

 

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The seemingly perfect stability of our solar system is by no means repeated constantly throughout the universe.

When you consider all the (apparent) coincidences that happened in order to form our planet, its perfect distance from the sun to support life/ few catastrophic disasters etc. it all starts to become mind-blowing. We're all very lucky to be here if you think about it that way...

 

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It's thought that with the right atmospheric gases, Mars wouldn't have much trouble supporting life. Temperatures on Mars used to be very similar to what we experience here on Earth, and it even had running water back in the day. If they find life on Mars, it would suggest that life could actually be extremely common in the universe. They've been discovering a lot of solar systems near distant stars lately, and once the technology's refined enough to detect smaller planets at these distances, it's possible we could find a wealth of Earth-like planets in other solar systems.

Anyway I'm more than willing to bet Earth could still support life even if you made small but visibly noticeable changes to its orbit. Perhaps humans wouldn't have evolved if the orbit was changed, but many known forms of life have a far greater tolerance to extreme conditions than we do, and something else would have probably evolved in our place more suitable to the given climate.

 

You cannot ignore the effects of gravity on space and its impact on planetary orbits either.