Is space structured like a flat plane where all planets align along a single y-axis, or is it akin to an expansive ocean where planets occupy positions across multiple axes?
In: Planetary Science
A helpful way to think about gravity and how it influences masses in the solar system is to think of a kitchen sink. Imagine that the sink is filled, but slowly draining. The water spirals around the drain, but it’s not some sudden change in the fluid motion denoted by an event horizon, water outside of the initial spiral will experience inertial effects. The closer the water to the spiral, the faster it seems to move, the further out, the slower the rotation.
Similar to fluidic inertia, mass moves and mass attracts, and inevitably mass will coalesce to the point where its own gravitational pull can noticeably influence the trajectory and speed of foreign objects. Over millions of years it’s only natural the nearest large objects would fall into a similar planar axis, much like how metronomes on a shared unstable surface can effectively synchronise.
Everything is pulling everything else and the heaviest nearest stuff in our solar system moves in one direction, which in turn causes neighbouring stuff to move in a similar direction, like geese flying in a V.
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