Suzanne Mizzi, age 11, of Toronto, Ontario, for her question:

Do planets have to revolve around the sun?

There are cosmic traffic laws that keep the heavenly bodies in their places. Breaking traffic laws on the heavens is downright certain to end in disaster. It is a very exact combination of forces which keeps a planet revolving around the sun.

This situation involves the cosmic laws of motion and of gravity, the quota of pulling force built into every small and massive object. The mighty gravity of the massive sun is strong enough to pull down all the planets into its seething furnace. In fact, it constantly pulls them downward like falling stones. The planets defend themselves by falling in a curved path    a curved path that orbits around and around

the sun. The exact orbit of a planet is a precise ratio between its mass and the sun's mass and its distance from the sun. It orbits at the precise speed which keeps it from falling into the sun or from zooming off out of the Solar System.