Wayne Haskins, Age 10, Of Boise Ida., for his question:

Why don’t orbiting planets leave the sun?

Each planet is made from a certain amount of material. This is its mass, or weight  and the pull of gravity depends upon mass. The sun's mass is almost 1000 times greater than the nine planets. The pull of its mighty gravity reaches out and keeps the planets from escaping,

The planets travel fast to offset the sun’s gravity. If they did not whirl around . Their orbits, they would be pulled into the sun. A planet could escape the sun if its orbit speed were fast enough but the solar system is perfectly balanced. The sun's gravity is just strong enough to keep the planets from escaping and their orbit speeds are dust fast enough to keep them from falling into the sun.