What is Orbital evolution?

Orbital evolution is when planets or other space objects slowly change how they move around a star, like how a toy car changes its path on a bumpy road.

Imagine you're playing with your favorite toy car on the floor. You push it, and it goes in a straight line. But if you push it on a wobbly table or near a wall, it might twist and turn as it moves, that’s like how space objects move when they’re affected by other things.

Space is full of gravity, it's like an invisible hand pulling everything together. When one object (like Earth) goes around another (like the Sun), gravity helps keep it in a path, like a string tied to a spinning top.

But if something else comes along, like a passing moon, or another planet, it can nudge that first object just enough to change its path over time. That’s orbital evolution: the slow, gradual change of an object's orbit because of gravity from other things around it.

It’s like how your toy car might take a different route every time you push it on a new surface, not magic, but a little help from gravity and other objects in space!