How Does Orbit of the Planets in the Solar System Work?

Imagine the Sun is like a big, friendly giant who’s spinning around on a trampoline, and all the planets are like kids jumping along with him.

The Sun pulls the planets, just like how your mom pulls you when you're playing tag. The pull is called gravity, and it keeps the planets in their paths, kind of like how a string keeps a yo-yo from flying away.

Each planet has its own speed, some are fast like race cars, others are slow like sleepy turtles. Earth moves around the Sun in an oval path called an ellipse, just like when you draw around a soccer ball with a marker.

The closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it goes, kind of like how you run faster when you're close to the finish line in a race!

Even though they’re all moving and being pulled by gravity, they don't crash into each other because they have just the right speed, like when you swing on a swing: if you go too fast or too slow, you might fall off, but if you get it right, you keep going around!