According to what I was taught at school, the earth and other planets were formed from loose matter floating around the universe which over time gathered together to form the sun and planets. This is called acretion. These planets were then caught up by the gravitational feild of the sun and settled into orbit around the sun. I never thought to doubt this version until one day I discovered that the planets all orbit in pretty much the same plane, I had always thought that this was merely the way it was presented in text books. By my reasoning the acretion theory relies on coincidence to make all planets line up in the same plane, thats a lot of coincidence. Whilst I don't doubt that acretion took place, and still continues even now, I would argue that there must have been some sort of base for the loose matter to acrete to. By my reasoning there must be another explaination.
Being a mechanic by proffession with only high school education, I nevertheless applied my mind to this problem. My common sense told me there were two possible reasons why the planets all orbit in the same plane around the sun. The first I considered was the possibility that the gravitational feild of the sun was strongest around the equator (of the sun). Since the sun, as with all heavenly bodies must spin on its axis in much the same way as the earth does, its stands to reason that if the sun has greater gravity around the equator, then the same must be true for the earth as well. If that were true, then the weight of a person (for instance) will be greater at the equator than at the poles. Because of the effect of centrifugal force, which will be greatest at the equator it is possible that a person could weigh less at the equator. None of which makes any sense, therefore there must be another cause for the position of the planetary orbits.
The other possiblity that occurs to me is that the sun while minding its own business in space was struck by a large object, possibly debris from an exploding star (apparently stars do explode from time to time). The impact could have had a number of effects on the sun, for instance it could have been caused to speed up its rotation whilst also having an increase in mass. Since the sun is pretty hot, most matter there will be in a molten state. With an increase in rotation speed as well as an increase in mass, it stands to reason that some matter could be expelled quite violently. I imagine a scenario much like a wet tennis ball being struck a glancing blow by a bullet, the tennis ball would spin causing water to be thrown off from its equator. In much the same way matter expelled from the sun would also be thrown off from the suns equator.
The individual "droplets" so expelled would vary in size and composition and will very likely have varying amounts of energy instilled into them. As these "droplets" move away fom the sun, they will all be in the same plane, since they have been expelled from the suns equator. These "drops of sun" will be affected by the gravity of the sun and slow down as they move away until they eventually settle into orbit around the sun and become planets. Acretion can then take place with the planetary orbits already established Should this theory be correct, then all the planets should orbit the sun in the same direction that the sun rotates. Their rotation however should be in the opposite direction (by my reasoning, which is not cast in stone).
The planet Venus however doesn't fit this pattern, the reason for that is possibly that Venus has a different origin to all the other planets. The planet Pluto has an orbit which is a little away from the plane in which the other planets orbit, this could be explained if the rotational axis of the Sun was different at the time Pluto came into being, which is possible, maybe even quite likely. I have read from various authors that the planet Venus was originally a comet which was captured into our system by the combined gravity feilds of the planets and the Sun and eventually settled into orbit (after causing a lot of chaos), this could be the reason why its rotation is in the opposite direction to all the other planets.

This theory may sound stupid to many people but it makes sense to me, and it does explain why all the planets orbit in the same plane. Whilst reading about planet origins I discovered that this theory is not new, apparently a certain Mr. Jean (an academic) had a similar theory way back in the early 20th century, was he also stupid and ignorant?
Having heard about Zachariah Sitchens stories about the planet Nubiru, I wonder if it is possible that there could be another planet which orbits the sun on a different plane from that of ours. Such a planet could be hidden from us until such time as its orbit brings it to same same side of the sun as we happen to be. Whether Mr. Sitchen's stories have any basis, I really wouldn't know, but is such a thing possible? If it is possble such a planet could be orbitting the sun without our ever being aware of it.