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

If a planet is moving too slowly, it will lose altitude – it will fall towards the sun. As it falls it picks up speed, until it is moving fast enough to no longer be falling. Because of this, it is actually super hard to fall into the sun (or any planet).

This creates an oval-shaped orbit.

Over time the planets’ orbits have become balanced out and circular. Instead of having a stretched oval they are mostly circular.