Why do planets have enough centripetal force to prevent themselves from crashing into the sun?

Question

Why do planets have enough centripetal force to prevent themselves from crashing into the sun?

In: 1

Answer 1

They are always falling into the sun, but they are moving so fast sideways it becomes a circle (irl ellipse).

Newton made an [actual ELI5 though experiment](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_cannonball) to show how orbits work. Imagine a canon on top of a high mountain shoots a ball, the ball moves forward but is also falling down, it follows a curved path and eventually hits the ground. What if you shot the ball so fast it fell in a curve that matched the curvature of earth and so always fell but never hit the ground? The ball is now orbiting the earth.