Solar System and Gravity - 1112 Words

The Effects of Gravity There are some people who worry that when they re outside, if they don t keep a good grip on the ground, they ll just go flinging off into space. They needn t really worry about this, because gravity generally keeps that sort of thing from happening. The thing is, no one is really sure what causes gravity, but the effects have been studied by many physicists and astronomers. Three of the more obvious effects of gravity are things falling down, weight, and the the moon and planets staying in their orbits. Things fall down. People have generally grown to accept that if one lets go of one s prized and valuable textbook when walking through a mud puddle, the book will invariably†¦show more content†¦So, too, the moon continuously falls around the Earth, and the planets fall around the Sun. Each of these objects balances the Sun s force of gravity with its own momentum, that is, with its innate tendency to keep moving in the same direction at the same speed. Take away the Sun s force of gravity, and the planets would sail into space, in whatever dircetion at whatever speed they happen to have. Take away a planet s momentum, perhaps with a giant hand that stops it in orbit, and it would head straight for the Sun, drawn by the Sun s gravitational force. But, because both gravity and momentum are at work, the planets fall, not down, but around, forever as they move in elliptical, but nearly circular, orbits. Working with insight that has never been exceeded since, Isaac Newton showed that by making one simple assumption, that all objects in the universe attract one another in accordance with a simple relationship, he could explain the fall of objects to the ground, the moon s orbit around the Earth, and the planets motions around the Sun. The relationship Newton conceived was this: Every object attracts every other object with an amount of force that varies in proportion to the product of the two objects masses, and in inverse proportion to the square of the distance between the centers of the objects. It is plain to see that gravity is quite important. TheShow MoreRelatedInterplanetary Dust and Orbital Debris1059 Words   |  4 Pagesdue to solar wind. The positive charge helps in reacting to the Lorentz force. The interplanetary dust grain population mainly originates in the main asteroid belt that is located between 2 to 4 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. Dust forms in collisions between bodies of diï ¬â‚¬erent sizes and energies or may be carried in by comets. 10 % of the dust formed by collisions in this area is transported towards the Sun via the Poynting-Robertson drag. The remaining 90 % leave the solar system hyperbolicRead MoreCompare and Contrast of the Sun and Moon1430 Words   |  6 PagesSIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF THE SUN AND THE MOON The Similarities and Differences of the Sun and the Moon Kelsey Linder Marion Technical College The Similarities and Differences of the Sun and the Moon The solar system is one of the very first things that a child will learn about in school. Children will learn why there is night and day, why there are seasons, the different shapes of the moon, and all of that important stuff that is too easily forgotten, as timeRead MoreThe Theory Of The Solar System1356 Words   |  6 Pagesthings the Solar system. From about the sun and how everything orbits around it from the planets and different moons. Even down to the fragments that float around in space. Each of these things is what forms our solar system. Now in earth’s solar system it contains the sun, eight planets which orbits the sun and 166 moons orbiting it the planets. Now you may think we already know this, but do you really know how the solar system was really made? Like why everything is circular in our solar system, or maybeRead MoreWhat is a satellite? How can they help us daily / what is the purpose with satellites. How do they orbit? Satellite Power Sources1471 Words   |  6 Pagesof satellites are doing starting with Global Positioning system (GPS), Reconnaissance Satellites, and finally Telecommunications Satellites. The Global Positioning System provides users with accurate information about their latitude, longitude, velocity and altitude, as well as the time, anywhere in the world. The GPS was launch in 1973 by Navstar in the United States and then followed by the Soviet Union with their own GPS. Both GPS systems are free to use by anyone around the world and offers greatRead MoreEssay on Human Factors in Long-Duration Spaceflight1162 Words   |  5 Pagesspaceflight is almost immediately apparent after lift-off, leaving the gravitational pull of Earth, and entering a micro gravity environment. Weightlessness can have several different impacts on the human body. Astronauts who orbit the Earth on the International Space Station (ISS) already experience these effects, and those missions are not nearly as long in duration. First, the micro gravity environment causes osteoporosis to set in. Osteoporosis is the loss and weakening of the bone structure. In factRead MoreRay Bradbury s The Marti an Records1741 Words   |  7 Pagesrock-based features looking like those on earth suggest that mars was once a wet and nice (to guests) planet. A day on mars is 24.5 hours long. Mars is a third the size of earth, but it has as much land area as the seven continents combined. Its gravity is 2.7 times less than that of Earth: enough to remain flat-footed on the surface, but a low enough escape speed to make launching from mars (compared to other things) simple. Remember, it was much easier for Apollo to lift off from the moon thanRead MoreThe Problem Of Instant Space Travel1437 Words   |  6 Pagesexpenditures† (Answer to the question How much does the mission cost?) These two different prices can be explained due to the fact that one is sending people to Mars while the other is setting up a colony. But, how do we expect to travel outside of the solar system, in a reasonable amount of time, for a reasonable amount of money, if we can’t even go to Mars, without spendi ng at least $30 billion dollars? But this is not the only problem that faces the future of space travel. Another important problem thatRead MoreThe Planet Of Planet Mercury1256 Words   |  6 Pagessmallest planet (it was believed to be the smallest until the discovery that Pluto is actually much smaller than originally thought), and also the fastest in its orbit since it is the innermost planet. Solar System Records Highest uncompressed density. Highest diurnal variation in temperature. Only Solar System object with a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance. it rotates on its axis exactly three times for every two revolutions it makes around the Sun Geological history ended the earliest among terrestrial planetsRead MoreThe sun is a star in which all of the planets of the solar system orbit around. The sun involves700 Words   |  3 PagesThe sun is a star in which all of the planets of the solar system orbit around. The sun involves three key parts consisting of the core which makes up 25 percent of the sun, the radiative zone which makes up 45 percent of the sun, and the convective zone which makes up 30 percent of the sun. The sun contains a large amount of hydrogen in its core which is where most of the nuclear reactions take place. At the sun’s core, gravity attracts all of the mass inward and generates a pressure large enoughRead MoreWeek 1 Sci 151 Essay1268 Words   |  6 Pages 1. Our place in the universe a. The modern view of the universe 1) What is our Sun and what is its role in the solar system? a. The Sun is a fairly ordinary but large star. b. The Sun is the focal point of our solar system, because all of the planets orbit the Sun. 2) What is our Milky Way galaxy and the sun’s position in it? a. The Milky Way galaxy is where our solar system is located in the universe. b. The Milky Way galaxy is home to over 100 billion stars and the Sun is one of those