QUESTION:
Will the planets always be in space?

ANSWER from Nolan Walborn on March 20, 1996:
The Earth we live on is a planet which travels in an orbit around
our star, the Sun, once a year.  The other planets in our Solar System
do the same, but at different distances from the Sun and with
different orbital periods--shorter nearer the Sun as for Mercury and
Venus, longer further away as for Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto.  The planets formed out of the same huge cloud of
gas and dust which gave birth to the Sun nearly 5 billion years ago.
The planets closest to the Sun, including the Earth, will be swallowed
and burned up by the Sun when it expands in size near the end of its
lifetime, about 5 billion years from now.  The more distant planets
may survive the Sun's death, however, and stay orbiting its cold, dark
cinder forever.