Why are most planetary orbits nearly circular?

Let’s learn why are most planetary orbits nearly circular. The most accurate or helpful solution is served by Physics.

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Why are the orbits of planets in the Solar System nearly circular?

Except for Mercury, the planets in the Solar System have very small eccentricities. Is this property special to the Solar System? Wikipedia states: Most exoplanets with orbital periods of 20 days or less have near-circular orbits of very low eccentricity. That is believed to be due to tidal circularization, an effect in which the gravitational interaction between two bodies gradually reduces their orbital eccentricity. By contrast, most known exoplanets with longer orbital periods have quite eccentric...

Answer:

This was previously a comment to space_cadet's answer but became long (down-vote wasn't me though)....

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Mark Eichenlaub at Physics Mark as irrelevant Undo

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Why are planetary orbits elleptical and not circular?

Keplers Laws can be used to calculate the elleptical orbits but thats only calcualting, not the reason. Gravitational Force is the only significant force acting on a Planetary object orbiting another body (example Earth - Sun). This Force is calculated...

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Elliptical orbits are a natural result of gravity. Left to itself, an elliptical orbit is also very...

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ashokgop... at Yahoo! Answers Mark as irrelevant Undo

Why are planetary orbits in near perfect equilibrium rather than falling into the sun or escaping the sun's pull?

I understand the basic physics of elliptical orbits. What I'm confused about is that it would seem a planetary body would need a narrow range of velocity vectors for a given distance from the sun in order to prevent a death/escape spiral. Is our solar...

Answer:

Planetary orbits are stable because of the inverse-square properties of gravity.   if it was linear...

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George Gonzalez at Quora Mark as irrelevant Undo

Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, several thousand asteroids move in nearly circular orbits...?

around the Sun. Consider an asteroid that is spherically shaped with radius r and density 2100kg/m^3. You find yourself on the surface of this asteroid and throw a baseball at a speed of 25m/s. If the baseball is to travel around the asteroid in a circular...

Answer:

How in the hell are we going to get on the surface of an asteroid?

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Jack P at Yahoo! Answers Mark as irrelevant Undo

Why aren't planetary orbits arranged like electrons to the nucleus?

Gravity has always been portrayed to me as a spherical range and the planets are orbiting in the orbits because they are caught in the gravity field pulling it torwards the sun while the planet is trying to move in a straightline, basically torque. The...

Answer:

I won't waste time hashing over again what so many others have correctly said. Instead, to address the...

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The One Truth at Yahoo! Answers Mark as irrelevant Undo

Answer:

No, planets are supposed to revolve in elliptical orbits. The circle is just the special, and unusual...

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newyearseenu at Answerbag.com Mark as irrelevant Undo

Answer:

All of these objects probably formed from the same swirling disk of material. As such they initially...

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Anonymous at ChaCha Mark as irrelevant Undo

Answer:

Rotation alone is not going to make an object spherical. In three dimensions, any rotating object will...

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Sean S. Con at Quora Mark as irrelevant Undo

Does the gravitational attraction of the Milky Way really increase the eccentricity of planetary orbits in the Kuiper Belt over time?

I attended someone's AGU poster today, whose paper is here: http://www.rochesterresearch.org... I don't have the time to go over the calculations now (AGU Meeting), but I just would like to know what others think of this... TITLE: Eccentricity Increase...

Answer:

OK.  The first part of the paper was sort of interesting when he was talking about how stellar mass...

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Joseph Wang at Quora Mark as irrelevant Undo

Physics Problem circular orbits?

This problem concerns the properties of circular orbits for a satellite of mass m orbiting a planet of mass M in an almost circular orbit of radius r. In doing this problem, you are to assume that the planet has an atmosphere that causes a small drag...

Answer:

The potential energy (U) of any object is the product of its mass (m), the acceleration (g) due to gravity...

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Troy at Yahoo! Answers Mark as irrelevant Undo

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