SAGITTARIUS THE MANIPULATOR

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered why the planets spin in perfect harmony around the Sun? Or why Earth doesn’t simply fall into the blazing fireball at the center of our solar system? Maybe you've heard whispers of time flowing differently in space or of the entire solar system soaring through the galaxy on an invisible path.

These aren’t just random cosmic coincidences — they are part of a grand design governed by the invisible laws of nature, stitched into the very fabric of the universe.

In this journey, we’ll explore the breathtaking mechanics behind our solar system’s dance, uncover the secrets of gravity, and understand why even time itself bends to the will of massive celestial bodies. With the brilliance of Newton and the genius of Einstein guiding us, we’ll unravel mysteries that are as ancient as the stars themselves — and far more exciting than science fiction.

So, fasten your seatbelt — we’re about to travel through space, time, and everything in between

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1. Why do the planets of the world revolve around the Sun?

To understand this fascinating phenomenon, we need to dive into the brilliant insights of Sir Isaac Newton and his legendary laws of gravity. So, let’s begin our journey into the vast and mysterious depths of space.

Newton’s law of universal gravitation states:

> “Every object in the universe attracts every other object with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centres.”


This means that any object that has mass will attract another object that also has mass. The strength of this attraction depends on two things: how massive the objects are and how far apart they are. The larger the mass, the greater the gravitational pull.

Now, let’s apply this to our solar system. The Sun is the most massive object in our solar system. In fact, it contains about 99.8% of the entire solar system’s mass. That’s an enormous amount of mass! So naturally, its gravitational pull is incredibly powerful. That’s why all the planets are drawn toward it — they are caught in its massive gravitational field.

But now a new question might arise: If the Sun’s gravity is so strong, why don’t the planets fall into it?

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2. Why don’t the planets fall into the Sun?

To answer this, we need to take a step back in time — about 4.6 billion years ago — to understand how the solar system was born.

Back then, a giant cloud of gas and dust called a nebula began to collapse under its own gravity. As it shrank, it started to spin faster, like a spinning ice skater pulling in their arms. This spinning, collapsing cloud eventually led to the formation of the Sun at its center, due to the extreme pressure and heat. The remaining dust and gas began clumping together to form the planets, moons, asteroids, and other objects.

Now here’s the key point: As the planets were forming, they gained momentum — the natural tendency to keep moving in a straight line. According to Newton’s First Law of Motion (also known as the law of inertia):

> “An object in motion will stay in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force.”


So we have two opposing forces at play:

The Sun’s gravity pulls the planets toward it.
The planets’ momentum pushes them to move in a straight line.


These two forces balance each other out in a beautiful cosmic dance. The result? The planets don’t crash into the Sun — instead, they move around it in curved paths called orbits.

Think of it like this: Imagine tying a ball to a string and swinging it around your head. The ball wants to fly off in a straight line, but the string keeps it moving in a circle. In the same way, the Sun’s gravity acts like the string, keeping the planets moving in their orbits.

This is why planets don’t fall into the Sun — they are in a constant state of free fall, but because of their sideways motion, they keep missing the Sun and continue orbiting it.

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3. Is the Sun orbiting something too?

Yes — it may surprise you, but the Sun is not standing still in space. For a long time, people believed it was stationary. But in the 1920s, astronomers made a groundbreaking discovery: The Sun itself is orbiting around something far larger.

That something is a mysterious and powerful object at the center of our galaxy: a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*. This black hole lies at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is the galaxy we live in.

Now remember: The greater the mass, the stronger the gravitational force. And Sagittarius A* is around 4 million times more massive than the Sun! That’s why even the Sun — along with the entire solar system — is being pulled by its gravity.

Our solar system orbits around Sagittarius A* at an astonishing speed of about 220 kilometers per second. At that speed, it takes about 225 to 250 million years for the Sun to complete just one orbit around the center of the Milky Way. This vast journey is called a galactic year.

So yes, our Earth, along with the other planets, is not only orbiting the Sun — it’s also traveling across the galaxy on a massive cosmic journey. In this sense, the Earth has not just one, but three distinct types of motion: rotation (spinning on its axis), revolution (orbiting the Sun), and galactic orbit (moving with the Sun around the Milky Way).

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4. How does mass create attraction? How is gravitational force actually generated?

Sir Isaac Newton was the first to describe gravity as a force of attraction between objects with mass. However, he didn’t explain why gravity exists or how it comes into being. His equations accurately described what gravity does, but not the deeper reason why it works.

Then came Albert Einstein, who offered a groundbreaking new perspective through his General Theory of Relativity.

Einstein proposed that gravity isn’t really a force at all. Instead, he said that mass and energy bend spacetime — and objects move along the curves created in this warped spacetime.

But what exactly is spacetime?

Spacetime is a four-dimensional fabric that combines the three dimensions of space (length, width, and height) with time as the fourth dimension. You can think of it as a vast, invisible sheet that stretches across the universe.

Here’s a simple way to visualize Einstein’s idea:

Imagine a stretched rubber sheet or trampoline. Now, place a heavy ball in the center. The sheet will sag under the weight of the ball, creating a dip or curve. Now roll a smaller ball near the edge of that dip — instead of going in a straight line, it will spiral toward the heavier ball. It’s not because there’s a mysterious force pulling it, but because the path it’s traveling on is curved.

In the same way, the Sun bends the spacetime around it, and the planets move along those curves — not because they're being "pulled" in the classical sense, but because they are following the natural shape of the space they’re in.

So, Einstein’s theory tells us that gravity is the effect of mass warping the very fabric of space and time.

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5. Why does time move slower on Earth compared to space?

This is another fascinating consequence of Einstein’s theory. He discovered that time itself is affected by gravity. This phenomenon is known as gravitational time dilation.

Here’s the simple idea:

> The stronger the gravitational field (the more spacetime is curved), the slower time passes.

The weaker the gravitational field (the less spacetime is curved), the faster time passes.


So, near a very massive object like a black hole, time moves incredibly slowly. Even Earth, though much less massive, still bends spacetime enough that time passes just a tiny bit slower on the surface than it does high above in space.

That means that an astronaut floating in space, far from Earth’s gravity, will experience time moving slightly faster than someone on Earth. Though the difference is tiny for humans, it becomes significant when dealing with satellites and GPS systems. Engineers actually have to adjust for this time difference to make GPS signals accurate!

In short: Gravity affects time. The closer you are to a massive object, the slower your clock ticks. This incredible insight is one of the many wonders of Einstein’s theory of relativity.

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CONCLUSION

The universe is full of wonders — and the way planets move around the Sun is one of the most fascinating. What might seem like magic at first is actually the result of invisible forces like gravity and motion, working together in perfect balance.

Thanks to great scientists like Newton and Einstein, we now know that planets orbit the Sun because of gravity, and they don’t fall in because they’re moving forward at just the right speed. We’ve also learned that even the Sun is moving — pulled by a powerful black hole at the center of our galaxy. And maybe most amazing of all, time itself moves differently depending on where you are in the universe!

All of this shows how amazing and mysterious our universe really is. Every star, planet, and galaxy follows beautiful rules that help us understand the world around us. And even though we’ve learned so much, there’s still so much more to discover.

So next time you look at the sky, remember — you’re part of something incredibly big and wonderfully designed. The universe is always moving, always changing, and always waiting for us to explore.


Written by

ABID HASAN