This mesmerizing video shows how incredibly vast space really is

[n2doc]

https://vimeo.com/117815404

Light travels at about 186,000 miles per second. That's an incomprehensibly fast speed — faster than any other object in the universe.

But the video above shows how huge just our corner of the galaxy is, even for a photon of light traveling at that remarkable speed. The film, by artist Alphonse Swinehart, gives you the view you'd see if you were a particle of light traveling from the sun across the solar system — even though it's 45 minutes long, you still don't even reach Saturn.

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/29/9061333/solar-system-space

[brush]

1. One thing I've always wondered about?

Thank you for posting this fabulous video. It shows the power of our star's gravity in keeping the planets orbiting

around it. But does any know why they all orbit around the sun on the same plane?

[n2doc]

2. See this video

http://www.space.com/16132-formation-planets-protoplanetary-disk.html

[longship]

3. Preservation of angular momentum.

The cloud from which the solar system coalesced would have non-zero rotation. As it contracted, any rotation would increase, like ice skaters when they pull in their arms. The only stable orbits would be objects with the same orbital direction and mostly circular orbits in the plane of rotation. Roughly -- Pluto is significantly inclined to the ecliptic plane and is quite elliptical, Uranus rotates on its side, and Venus rotates retrograde. All orbit the same direction.

That's the basics, as I understand them. It's been a while since I calculated this stuff. So I welcome corrections.