Why doesn't the Earth get pulled into the Sun's gravitational pull?

Question

I understand that the Sun's gravity keeps the Earth from flying off into outer space, but what's keeping the Earth from going into the Sun?

Answer 1

We are far enough away to not get pulled in and close enough to not go flying off. Its all about distance.

Answer 2

The gravity of the Sun does pull the Earth downwards all the time. However the Earth is hurtling through space at right angles to that pull. If we went slower we would fall towards the Sun. If we went faster we would rise away from the Sun. Instead our path is a curve that never gets closer to the Sun. As a result we end up constantly travelling in a circle around the Sun.

Answer 3

This is the computer age. Information abounds. Why don't you Google this question before you put it together?

The orbit of the Earth creates, by the very nature of the orbit, centripetal force which tends to try to send the Earth flying off in some tangential direction away from the Sun. The Sun's gravity (paired with the very small gravity of the Earth) pulls on the Earth constantly, keeping it in its roughly circular path, or orbit. The force which tries to send the Earth flying out is balanced by the force of the Sun's gravity trying to pull the Earth in.

Answer 4

No, It is NOT because the Sun does not have enough gravitational pull. ALL of the objects that orbit the Sun also have inertia, velocity AND MOMENTUM because their masses. A dozen or more comets plunge into the Sun each year because of the comets low masses, so they just evaporate and ad very tiny bit of mass to the Sun. There Was oine comet last year that Actually THROUGH the Sun and had enough inertia to survive , but it lost so much mass to the sun that even though it maged to make it through the Sun, it still borke up . IF this can happen to a massive comet that had a lot of inertia and mass to survive passge through the outer layers of the Sun's convective zone, it has happened in the past and can happen again in the future. I think the name of Comet was McNaught. You may want to do a search engind search on Science Daily AND comet mCnaght. NASA Science also sent out several emails about Comet Mcnaught The Earth simply has enough mass, velocity, and inertia that it continually falls around the sun BECAUSE of the Sun's gravitational and Newtons' and kepler's laws ow motion and Einstein's laws of special and general relativity.

Answer 5

We are just at the right distance from the sun that we don't get pulled in and we don't fly off into outer space. Also the Earth's velocity around the sun helps to.

Answer 6

Put a weight on a string and spin it. At some point let it go. Do this several times and note where the weight goes. Without the string, the weight goes in a straight line in the direction it was traveling when you let go. (Well, gravity makes the weight go to the ground.) The string represents the gravity of the sun.

The weight would tend to go straight if there were no string (gravity). There is no such thing as centrifugal force. The forces involved are the centripetal force of the string or gravity and the momentum of the weight or earth which causes it to tend to go in a straight line. Our orbit is the balance of these two forces.

Centrifugal force is the name people give to the force they think is pulling away from the center. No force is pulling away from the center. One force (momentum) is causing the object to travel at a tangent to the orbit and the other force (gravity) is causing the object to go towards the source of the gravity.

Answer 7

It actually has to do with the distance that we are from the sun. For the topic of gravity there are many types of factors that play in. MASS, DISTANCE, AND RADIUS from the center of the object. in this case the sun has a gravitational pull any object with mass has a gravitational pull, however we don't feel it. you need a lot of mass to be pulled by gravity. however as you or the object get closer away from the center of the mass your gravitational pull decrease.



The distance mass and gravity are all related in an easy formula

1.)there is a direct relationship between the mass and gravity, the greater the mass the greater the gravity

2.)the relationship between gravity and distance however is inversly proportional. The greater the distance the weaker the gravitational pull and the smaller the distance the stronger the gravitational pull. --------------ANSWER

Answer 8

An orbit is a combo of two forces: The tendancy for an object to move forward in a uniform motion, and the downward pull of gravity. The combination of the momentum of the celestial object and the gravity of the star keeps panets in orbit. So it's the forward momentum of the Earth that doesn't cause the planet to fall into the sun.

Answer 9

The way I understand it, we are....But....it throws us out a little, and then we fall back into the sun again, now this isn't literally of course because we are not molten sun atm...What I mean is the throwing and pulling basically keeps us in a certain orbit for pretty much forever. I think the throwing part is called centrifugal force and the pulling is gravity.

Answer 10

The earth's forward motion through space is such that the combination of this speed and the amount that the earth falls toward the sun in one second is just enough to prevent the earth from getting any closer to the sun.

Answer 11

The earth is falling into the sun, it just happens to be moving laterally fast enough that we orbit the sun at approximately the same distance.