The motions of the planets in our solar system are difficult to understand even before we learn about the case of dark matter, which appears to hold the planets together and spin them. A hotly debated question regarding planetary orbits is why planets move away from the Sun given the Sun’s strong gravitational pull.
The Earth, for example, is moving away from the Sun at a rate of 1.5 centimeters per year. First we should point out that planets are not hurled by dark energy. The expansion of the universe only affects regions that are not interconnected by other forces. So the expansion of the universe does not affect the distance between objects in the solar system as they are held together by the force of gravity. On the other hand, objects that are not gravitationally bound together, for example two distant galaxies, move away from each other as the space between them expands.
The reason why the planets move away from the sun has to do with the fact of their lateral motion, which was attributed to them as they formed in the protoplanetary disk. So, the reason the planets are moving away from the Sun is because they are somehow being accelerated? The answer here is no.
As the Sun converts hydrogen into helium through nuclear fusion, the Sun’s mass decreases and energy is released through electromagnetic and particle radiation. The constant, steady loss of mass from the Sun results in a decrease in gravitational pull and a dilation of the planets’ orbits, astronomers explain.
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