• Question: How does the sun stay in place when there is no gravity to hold it in place?

    Asked by anon-193462 to Morwenna, Jamal, iainstaniland, Heidi, Emma, Carl on 9 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Emma Crawford

      Emma Crawford answered on 9 Nov 2018:

      Great question! I had to look this one up but found some really useful information on this from the NASA website: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-microgravity-58.html

      Gravity causes every object to pull every other object toward it. Some people think that there is no gravity in space. In fact, a small amount of gravity can be found everywhere in space. Gravity is what holds the moon in orbit around Earth. Gravity causes Earth to orbit the sun. It keeps the sun in place in the Milky Way galaxy. Gravity, however, does become weaker with distance.

    • Photo: Heidi Gardner

      Heidi Gardner answered on 9 Nov 2018:

      This is such an interesting question!
      There are a few things with this:
      1) The sun doesn’t actually stay still, it orbits about the Milky Way Galaxy. It still takes the sun about 230 million years to make one complete orbit around the Milky Way!
      2) There is still a little bit of gravity to make sure that the sun doesn’t just drop out of the sky – it’s called microgravity. That’s why when you see astronauts walking on the moon or floating around in space, they’re moving really slowly.

    • Photo: Carl Heron

      Carl Heron answered on 9 Nov 2018:

      Thanks Emma and Heidi. I endorse your responses!

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