| 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? |
Technically, the Sun is pulling us in. We don't move closer to the Sun because the motion of the Earth's orbit counteracts the force of the Sun's gravity. There's nothing to slow the Earth down in space, so our orbit remains stable.
Although gravity can't stop, let's assume, hypothetically, that I invent a machine that stops the gravity of an object. If we were to stop gravity on the sun, the Earth would fly off into space. If we stop gravity on Earth (while still allowing the Earth to be affected by other objects), it would stop the interaction between the Sun and Earth, throwing off the Earth's orbit. It would be hard to predict what would happen after that. We could fly into the Sun, another planet, or out of the solar system altogether.
