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Thus, the gravitational acceleration at this radius is [14] = (). where G is the gravitational constant and M(r) is the total mass enclosed within radius r. If the Earth had a constant density ρ, the mass would be M(r) = (4/3)πρr 3 and the dependence of gravity on depth would be
After converting to SI units, Cavendish's value for the Earth's density, 5.448 g cm −3, gives G = 6.74 × 10 −11 m 3 kg –1 s −2, [24] which differs by only 1% from the 2014 CODATA value of 6.67408 × 10 −11 m 3 kg −1 s −2. [25] Today, physicists often use units where the gravitational constant takes a different form.
According to the IAU's explicit count, there are eight planets in the Solar System; four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) and four giant planets, which can be divided further into two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). When excluding the Sun, the four giant planets account for more than ...
The table below shows comparative gravitational accelerations at the surface of the Sun, the Earth's moon, each of the planets in the Solar System and their major moons, Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. For gaseous bodies, the "surface" is taken to mean visible surface: the cloud tops of the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), and the ...
where F is the gravitational force acting between two objects, m 1 and m 2 are the masses of the objects, r is the distance between the centers of their masses, and G is the gravitational constant. The first test of Newton's law of gravitation between masses in the laboratory was the Cavendish experiment conducted by the British scientist Henry ...
If, for example, two bodies are initially at rest relative to each other, but are then dropped in the Earth's gravitational field, they will move towards each other as they fall towards the Earth's center. [17] Compared with planets and other astronomical bodies, the objects of everyday life (people, cars, houses, even mountains) have little mass.
For Earth's surface with respect to infinity, z is approximately 7 × 10 −10 (the equivalent of a 0.2 m/s radial Doppler shift); for the Moon it is approximately 3 × 10 −11 (about 1 cm/s). The value for the surface of the Sun is about 2 × 10 −6 , corresponding to 0.64 km/s.
The Hill sphere for Earth thus extends out to about 1.5 million km (0.01 AU). The Moon's orbit, at a distance of 0.384 million km from Earth, is comfortably within the gravitational sphere of influence of Earth and it is therefore not at risk of being pulled into an independent orbit around the Sun.