KnowHow Team explains: It is widely believed that the solar system has been stable for more than 4x109 years. However, definite proof concerning the stability of the system is yet to be found.

The first attempt to explain the apparent stability of the planetary orbits was made by John Kepler in 1609 and 1619.

While Kepler’s laws provide an explanation of how planets move, Newton’s law tells us why they do so.

Newton’s law of gravitation states that every particle of the universe attracts every other particle with a certain force. This force of attractions depends on the masses of the two particles and also the distance between them.

If a single object attracts several others then often it has been observed that the central body will neither be perfectly spherical nor homogeneous. Thus the value of the theoretical gravitational force will differ from the experimental ones.

In addition, other forces may also influence the motion. Such effects, called perturbation, is usually small compared to the two forces acting on the body. But over a long period of time, it can accumulate. The passage of star would perturb the the orbits of giant planets. Many orbits in the asteroid belt are stable over the age of the solar system. But orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and neptune are likely to be unstable.

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Tarique Ahmed, Darjeeling