UCSB Science Line. Answer 1: A planet's gravity extends far out into space. Despite what you have heard about . The weightlessness effect is due to both station and astronauts .
If you were in a falling elevator, you would also float like the astronauts- until the elevator hit the basement floor. The space station doesn't hit the ground because it orbits at 5 miles per second, which is so fast that the Earth's surface curves out from under the station as it falls.
The station falls in a circle, along with its astronauts inside. Isaac Newton discovered that the force of gravity between any two objects is F=G*m. G is a constant number. For your question, the important thing is that the force falls off with the square of the distance between the objects. One additional Earth radius (~4. Earth's gravity is 1/4 as strong as it is down here.
Earth radii from Earth's center), gravity is 1/9 as strong, etc. Most planets have moons, and from studying their orbits, it is easy to determine the strength of gravity required to keep the moons in their orbits. You get the planet's gravity at the distance of the moon's orbit, but knowing this, just multiply by (Moon's orbit radius / planet's radius)^2, and you get the gravity on the planet's surface. For moonless planets, surface gravity can still be determined by measuring how their gravity causes slight changes in the orbits of neighboring planets.
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Scientists determine the strength of the gravity which made the perturbation, and then they multiply by (distance between planets / planet's radius)^2, as before, to get the surface gravity. This method was actually used to discover Neptune- they noticed a slight wobble in Uranus's orbit, and calculated that it could only have been caused by a planet in Neptune's position. The only way to remotely determine the gravity of lone asteroids is to send a probe flying past and measure its deflection based on the timing of its radio signals.
Other Q&A Sites; Contact Us; Question Categories. Gravity on Other Planets Learn more physics! How Strong is Gravity on Other Planets? This is the standard for measuring gravity on other planets. How strong is gravity on other planets? 1 January 2016, by Matt Williams, Universe Today Gravity is a fundamental force of physics, one which we Earthlings tend to take for granted. You can't really blame us.