| Kantor said: I have a question. The Sun is larger than the Earth, and thus has a stronger gravitational pull. It is strong enough to keep something as massive as the Earth in orbit. So why isn't it strong enough to pull all of us in? Is it something to do with distance? So if gravity on Earth stopped, we'd all be pulled into the Sun? |
There are a few answers to that..
1) It's not strong enough to pull us in because the Earth has gravity too - enough to keep us here, as gravity exerts a downward force to keep us on the ground.
2) The further you get away from the sun, the less effect the sun has on gravity. In order to stay in orbit, the object requires an orbial velocity. The closer an object is to the sun, the faster it must move to prevent getting sucked in. For example, Mercury's speed is 47.9 km/s, whereas Earth is 29.8 km/s.
3) The idea of gravity stopping on earth, and the effect goes against the laws of gravity. To have no gravity on earth requires no earth. The assumption would be that if an object was moving at no speed (which no object is), then it should get pulled into the sun, provided it didn't get too close to another planet and become captured by it.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
