By that, I mean, why do planets always orbit… horizontally(?) around the sun. Why not vertically? Space is a 3D space, I’d course. So why would the planets not end up going up as well as sideways?
Edit: Space science is a lot more complicated than I thought, and I am here for this rabbit hole. Ty everyone for your answers so far!
In: 2352
Your question should be “why do planets all orbit in roughly the same plane in a solar system”
A star forms from a cloud of gas and dust, and that cloud of gas is rotating somehow, it doesn’t really matter what direction. As time passes, the cloud forms into more of a disk, rotating in the same axis as that’s the cloud did. Eventually the star forms, and then the planet form from that disk, all rotating around the same axis.
This is the same reason spiral galaxies are flat, and why Saturn’s rings are flat, and why most things orbit their parent body in a roughly equatorial orbit.
Small irregular galaxies are usually just bits ripped off of larger galaxies, and large elliptical galaxies are the result of smaller galaxies colliding. Outside forces remove that central axis of rotation from the initial cloud of dust.
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