Gravity is the most mysterious force in the universe. Scientists still do not know its nature. But it is gravity that keeps the planets of the solar system in orbit. If there were no gravity, the planets would fly away from the Sun, like billiard balls from a cue hit.

Gravity - the force of gravity

If you look deeper, it becomes clear that there would be no gravity, there would be no planets themselves. The force of gravity - the attraction of matter to matter - is the force that collected matter into the planets and gave them a round shape.

The gravitational force of the Sun is enough to hold nine planets, dozens of their satellites and thousands of asteroids and comets. The whole company swarms around the Sun like moths around a lighted balcony. If there were no gravity, these planets, satellites and comets would each fly their own way in a straight line. Instead, they revolve around the Sun in their orbits, because the Sun, by the force of its attraction, constantly bends their rectilinear trajectory, attracting planets, moons and comets with asteroids to itself.

The planets revolve around the star, just as ponies carrying children walk in a circle, tied to a post in the center of this circle. The only difference is in the binding method. Cosmic bodies are tied to the Sun by invisible threads of gravity. True, the greater the distance between objects, the less the force of attraction between them. The sun has a much weaker pull on the planet Pluto, the most distant planet in the solar system, than, say, Mercury or Venus. The force of gravity decreases (or increases) exponentially with distance.

The discovery by Johannes Kepler of the laws of planetary motion around the Sun can be considered the first step in studying the properties of gravity.

Kepler was the first person to discover that the motion of the planets around the Sun occurs in ellipses, i.e. elongated circles. He also found out the law of change in the speed of the planet, depending on its position in the orbit, and discovered the dependence that connects the periods of revolution of the planets with their distances from the Sun.

However, Kepler's laws, while making it possible to calculate the future and past positions of the planets, still did not say anything about the nature of those forces that bind the planets and the Sun into a harmonious system and do not allow them to dissipate in space. Thus, Kepler's laws gave, so to speak, only a cinematic picture of the solar system.

However, the question of why the planets move, and what force controls this movement, arose even then. But it didn't take long to get an answer. In those days, scientists mistakenly believed that any movement, even uniform and rectilinear, can occur only under the influence of force. Therefore, Kepler was looking for a force in the solar system that would "push" the planets and not allow them to stop. The solution came a little later, when Galileo Galilei discovered the law of inertia, according to which the speed of a body, on which no forces act, remains unchanged, or, to put it more precisely: in cases where the forces acting on the body are zero, the acceleration of this body is also equal to zero. With the discovery of the law of inertia, it became obvious that in the solar system one should look not for a force that “pushes” the planets, but for a force that turns their rectilinear movement “by inertia” into a curvilinear one.

The law of action of this force, the force of gravity, was discovered by the great English physicist Isaac Newton as a result of studying the movement of the Moon around the Earth. Newton was able to establish that all bodies attract each other with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This law turned out to be a truly universal law of nature, acting both in the conditions of the Earth and our solar system, and in world space among cosmic bodies and their systems.

With manifestations of gravitation, gravity, we meet literally at every step. The fall of bodies on the earth, lunar and solar tides, the circulation of planets around the Sun, the interaction of stars in star clusters - all this is directly related to the action of gravitational forces. In this regard, the law of gravitation received the name "universal". His discovery helped to understand a number of phenomena, the causes of which had previously remained unknown.

The quantitative side of the law of gravity has received numerous confirmations in precise mathematical calculations and astronomical observations. Suffice it to recall at least the "theoretical discovery" of Neptune, the eighth planet of the solar system. This new planet was discovered by the French mathematician Le Verrier by mathematical analysis of the motion of the seventh planet Uranus, which was "perturbed" by a then unknown celestial body.

The history of this remarkable discovery is very instructive. As the accuracy of astronomical observations increased, it was noticed that the planets in their movement around the Sun noticeably deviate from the Keplerian orbits. At first glance, this seemed to contradict the law of gravity, indicating a hundred inaccuracies or even incorrectness. However, not every contradiction refutes the theory.

There are such "exceptions" that are actually themselves a direct consequence of the law. They are one of its manifestations, for the time being eluding our attention and only once again testifying to its justice. There is even a catchphrase on this score: "The exception proves the rule." The study of such "exceptions" advances scientific knowledge, allows a deeper study of one or another natural phenomenon.

This is exactly what happened with the movement of the planets. The study of incomprehensible deviations of planetary paths from Keplerian orbits eventually led to the creation of modern "celestial mechanics" - a science capable of predicting the movements of celestial bodies.

If only one planet moved around the Sun, its path would exactly coincide with the orbit calculated on the basis of the law of gravity. However, in reality, nine large planets revolve around our daytime star, interacting not only with the Sun, but also with each other. This mutual attraction of the planets leads to the same deviations, which were mentioned above. Astronomers call them "perturbations."

At the beginning of the XIX century. astronomers knew only seven planets orbiting the sun. But in the motion of the seventh planet Uranus, terrible “disturbances” were discovered that could not, she explained, be attracted by the known six planets. It remained to assume that an unknown “transuranium” planet acts on Uranus. But where is it located? Where in the sky to look for it? To answer these questions, and undertook the French mathematician Le Verrier.

The new planet, the eighth from the Sun, has never been observed by any person. But, despite this, Le Verrier did not doubt that it exists. The scientist spent many long days and nights on his calculations. If earlier astronomical discoveries were made only in observatories, as a result of observations of the starry sky, then Le Verrier was looking for his planet without leaving his office. He clearly saw it behind the orderly rows of mathematical formulas, and when, on his instructions, Halle actually discovered the eighth planet, called Neptune, Le Verrier, they say, did not even want to look at it through a telescope.

Having been born, celestial mechanics quickly won a place of honor in space research. It is today one of the most accurate sections of astronomical spiders.

Suffice it to mention at least the prediction of the moments of solar and lunar eclipses. Do you know, for example, when the next total solar eclipse will occur in Moscow? Astronomers can give a completely accurate answer. This eclipse will begin at about 11:00 on October 16, 2126. Celestial mechanics helped scientists look 167 years into the future and accurately determine the moment when the Earth, Moon and Sun will take such a position relative to each other, at which the lunar shadow will fall on the territory of Moscow. And what about the calculations of the movement of space rockets, artificial celestial bodies created by human hands? Again, they are based on the law of gravity.

The movement of any celestial body, in the final analysis, is completely determined by the gravitational force acting on it and the speed that it possesses. We can say that in the current state of the system of celestial bodies, its future is unequivocally concluded. Therefore, the main task of celestial mechanics is to, knowing the relative position and speed of any celestial bodies, calculate their future movements in space. Mathematically, this problem is very difficult. The fact is that in any system of moving space bodies there is a constant redistribution of masses, and due to this, the magnitude and direction of the forces acting on each body change. Therefore, even for the simplest case of motion of three interacting bodies, there is still no complete mathematical solution. An exact solution to this problem, known in "celestial mechanics" as the "three-body problem", can be obtained only in certain cases when it is possible to introduce a certain simplification. A similar case occurs, in particular, when the mass of one of the three bodies is negligible compared to the masses of the others.

But this is exactly the case when calculating rocket orbits, for example, in the case of a flight to the Moon. The mass of the spacecraft is so small compared to the masses of the Earth and the Magnifier that it can be ignored. This circumstance makes accurate calculations of rocket orbits possible.

So, the law of action of gravitational forces is well known to us, and we successfully use it to solve a number of practical problems. But what natural processes determine the attraction of bodies to each other?

Indeed, it is strange: the Sun, with its huge gravitational forces, keeps the Earth and all the other planets of the solar system around itself, does not allow them to fly into outer space. It would seem strange that the Earth around itself holds the Moon. Gravitational forces act between all bodies, but the planets do not fall on the Sun because they are in motion, this is the secret. Everything falls down to the Earth: raindrops, snowflakes, a stone falling from a mountain, and a cup overturned from the table. And Luna? It revolves around the earth. If it were not for the forces of gravity, it would fly away tangentially to the orbit, and if it suddenly stopped, it would fall to the Earth. The moon, due to the attraction of the Earth, deviates from a rectilinear path, all the time, as it were, “falling” to the Earth. The motion of the Moon occurs along a certain arc, and as long as gravity acts, the Moon will not fall to the Earth. It is the same with the Earth - if it stopped, it would fall into the Sun, but this will not happen for the same reason. Two types of motion - one due to gravity, the other due to inertia - add up and result in curvilinear motion.

The law of universal gravitation, which keeps the universe in balance, was discovered by the English scientist Isaac Newton. When he published his discovery, people said he was crazy.

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Why won't the Moon be attracted to the Sun, because its attraction force is 2 times greater??? and got the best answer

Answer from Uncle Fedor[guru]
Something in general is complete nonsense at the expense of "doubled power" ...
The moon is attracted to the sun. And the Earth is also attracted to the Sun. Due to this attraction, the Earth and the Moon move in an orbit around the Sun, and do not fly away in a straight line.

Answer from Nikolai Gorelov[guru]
Before answering this question, you need to recognize it as nonsense.

Answer from Vladimir Medvedev[newbie]
The question comes from the fact that there are two givens - the Earth and the Sun, and the Moon must choose between them, what to be attracted to.
If the attraction is more to the Earth - revolve around the Earth, if more to the Sun - revolve around the Sun - or even fall on it.
The implicit assumption here is that the Earth and the Sun themselves are fixed at some points in space, since they are considered as two different bases, to one of which the Moon must belong. At least, the influence of the Earth and the Sun on each other is not considered.
And in fact, this influence is. And just as the Sun attracts the Moon, it also attracts the Earth just as strongly, and even more strongly.
Accordingly, they are attracted in tandem and "fall" on the Sun. But the rotation around the Sun of the Earth-Moon system allows you to balance the centrifugal force and the gravitational force of the Sun.

Answer from Anatoly Nizgodinsky[guru]
It is necessary to consider not the Moon separately, but the Earth-Moon pair! And don't forget that they ROTATE around the sun!!!

Answer from Konstantin Okhotnik[guru]
Yes, you don’t need to look at the answers, but read a scientific book, at least a school textbook.
Don't worry, the Moon and the Sun and the Earth are attracted! And it falls both on the Earth and on the Sun, but it cannot get there in any way.
And why does the Sun act on the Moon with a vengeance?

Answer from Evgeny Yurtaev[expert]
then why don't leaves or dust swirl around us? logically, we are bigger and have iron inside and dust should be our companion 😀

Answer from Vlad Shatrova[active]
The earth is closer to the moon and the attraction is greater, and the sun is further away and the force of gravity decreases. So it turns out that the Moon "hangs" between the Sun and the Earth.

Answer from white rabbit[guru]
The correct answer is from Uncle Fyodor.
ALL bodies in the gravitational field move in the same way, including the Moon and the Earth, if we consider the Earth-Moon system, then you can temporarily forget about the Sun
This is a consequence of the fact that there is actually no ATTRACTION FORCE (not twice as much, but NO AT ALL 🙂

Answer from Danilochkin Fedor[guru]
The earth won't let go. Do not forget about the mutual attraction of the earth and the moon.

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Why is the Moon not attracted to the Sun, because its gravity is 2 times greater???

Just like a pebble with a rubber band, our Earth will rapidly fly away from the solar system if, for any reason, it suddenly ceases to be affected by attraction of the sun. Let's assume for a moment that this happened. Let's see what will happen to our planet and all of us - the inhabitants of the Earth. The attraction of the sun.

When moving away from the sun

Already when moving away from the sun at a distance of approximately the planet Uranus, we will strongly feel a noticeable decrease in the light and influence of the life-giving rays of the sun. Then, with a great distance, the Sun will appear to us only in the form of a bright, slightly warming star. After some time, we will observe the Sun in the form of a small, barely noticeable, faintly twinkling star and, finally, we will lose it from the field of view. But much before we lose sight of our daylight, all animal and plant life will cease to exist on Earth. The Earth will plunge into eternal darkness and cold, continuing to rapidly rush through the space of the Universe.. There will be no air currents on Earth, no tornadoes and lightning hurricanes, there will not even be the slightest breeze. Under the influence of global cold, the deepest oceans will freeze to the bottom. The earth will be covered with snow from liquid air, will turn into an ice block, eternal and deep silence will reign on it. In a word, our planet will in many ways become similar to its satellite, the Moon. Finally, this lifeless solidified block can meet some new solar system on its way in world space. Under the influence of the attraction of the central body of this system, the Earth will begin to circle around it along with other planets already revolving around this new “Sun”. The Earth will find shelter in the family of the new world of planets, for example, without a new catastrophe. It may be heated and illuminated by the new Sun even more than the previous one. Perhaps she will again become a "carrier of life", but already updated. The old world will not be reborn. But all of this is just a fantasy. To our great satisfaction, and cannot “jump off” it in any way. It is constantly attracted by our Sun with powerful force. And there is no force in nature that could break this gravitational force of the sun. The only possibility is an invasion of our system by some other star. Then the terrible catastrophe described in Wells' fantastic story "The Star" will really break out. The Sun not only keeps the Earth (and other planets) at certain distances from itself, in general, little changing, and somewhere in the boundless space distances. This is because the Sun has a massive mass. Its volume is one million three hundred thousand times greater, and the mass of the Sun is approximately 750 times greater than the mass of all the planets of the solar system taken together. The gravitational force of the Sun is unusually strong. , does not stop falling on it, but cannot fall in any way, since its movement by inertia prevents this.

If the Earth stops moving in its orbit

But let's see what happens if the Earth suddenly, due to some unknown reasons, stop moving in its orbit. Then the Earth with an incredibly large and ever-increasing speed will rapidly fall into the Sun. And eventually fall on him.
The rotation of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. We, the inhabitants of the Earth, would soon notice a copious increase in light and heat. We would immediately become unbearably hot, even if this catastrophe caught us in the winter. The temperature of the air would rise so rapidly, it would reach such a figure that it would no longer be possible to measure it with our ordinary thermometers. The vast ice sheets at the North and South Poles would melt quickly under these conditions, and the water formed from the melting of these ices would turn into steam before it could spill over the surface of the Earth. The deepest seas and oceans will dry up. All vegetation will burn. Even the most drought-resistant plants will die. Animals and people will burn along with our entire planet. Even before the Earth has time to come close to the Sun, it will begin to turn into a lump of hot gases. This lump will plunge into the hot abyss of the Sun. It must be remembered that the surface temperature of the Sun is about 6,000 degrees, and the most refractory metals there are in a state of very hot gases. But nothing like this can happen. The Earth, thanks to the attraction of the Sun, will move around our star for millions of years, and no catastrophes threaten it.