(Theoretically) What would happen...?

Question

What would happen if all that existed was two stars, completely identical in every way, and you were standing right between them, dead center? Would gravity be cancelled out? What would happen to you? (I mean, aside from dying in the vacuum) Would it depend on how far apart the stars were? What would happen if they were relatively far apart? If they were close?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Interesting question. Let's assume, first of all, that you were completely motionless and completely symmetrical.

In that case you would simply be held in place by the gravity fields of the two stars. For all intents and purposes their gravities would cancel out (that is NOT technically correct, of course, because the gravities would be identical but in opposing directions at only a single point in space).

So you would float motionless forever (at least until one of the stars failed).

One side of your body would be pulled toward the star on that side more than the other, and the same would hold true for the other side. I doubt you would feel the pull, but it probably would be measureable. In effect there would be tidal effects on your body.

Now, if you were the least bit asymmetrical, and your center of gravity were not already pointed to one or the other of the stars, then you would begin to rotate. I do not know if you would ever stop rotating, with no friction involved. Since both stars are identical I doubt you would stop.

I don't think the distance between the two stars is relevant (although the rotation thing would be much slower if the two were more widely separated. And, of course if they were very close you'd run the risk of burning up. Also, the very close stars will begin to pull at each other, introducing further asymmetries into the system. But, let's not go there..if becomes complex.

Answer 2

You would be pulled towards one of the two stars. The potential you describe has a saddle point where you are positioned. That means your equation of motion is unstable and the solution bifurcates into you falling either into one OR the other star. Staying at the center is a solution which can not happen in the physical world because ANY, even the smallest perturbation will lead to an increasingly larger force towards one of the sides.

This is the same as positioning a steel ball on top of another steel ball. The ball will always roll downhill, no matter how careful you are in getting it to the highest spot.

Answer 3

It all depends on if you are stationary or not and how far apart the stars are. Binary stars do exist, and as a matter of fact, the nearest star to the earth, other than the sun, is a binary star called alpha/beta-centauri.

By nature, all things in the universe orbit around something (even galaxies), so the likelyhood of remaining stationary in such a situation is impossible. The stars in this case would have to be orbiting around each other in an elliptical orbit, thus you would be forced to orbit with them, and also there would be no way for you to remain exactly the same distance from each of them.

One of the stars would have to grab you into it's gravitational pull and you would begin to orbit it. The orbit would be sustained by your velocity (speed) around it, yet the orbit would be highly elliptical because of the other nearby star (much the same as the moon's orbit around the earth).

If the stars did not orbit each other, they would quickly crash into each other which would make it a moot point.

Answer 4

anything that has mass "has" gravity. so gravity doesnt "cancel out" however you would be at the center of two orbiting bodies that are identical, so you would just stay there right in the middle. doesnt matter how far or close the stars are to eachother, you are at the center. well i guess if you the stars were "really" close then you would be ripped directly in half once the stars gravitationl fields overlaped with your own. hahahaha....i hope this helps

Answer 5

There are two kinds of "equilibrium" points. Stable and unstable.

Instead of defining, an example:

You have to use your hand to keep a broomstick vertical.

You can either place your hand under the stick and hold it up in equilibrium, moving your hand sideways to compensate for any perturbation. This is called unstable equilibrium because any perturbation, if you don't actively correct it, will cause the broom to move away from vertical faster and faster. Unstable equilibrium

or you can use your fingers and hold the broomstick vertically BELOW your hand. No need to correct for perturbations. Any perturbation moving the stick away from the vertical is compensated by gravity which pulls the broom pack closer to the vertical. Stable equilibrium.

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In between the two stars, you are in unstable equilibrium. Any perturbation that puts you a tiny bit closer to one star will be enhance by that star's increased gravitational pull on you.

That is because there is gravity at that point. There is gravity from both stars at every point in that universe. It just so happens that the acceleration due to the gravity of one star is cancelled by the acceleration due to the gravity of the other star.

Let us say that you can stay at that spot. Your body is not a point, not a line, nor a plane. Your body has 3 dimensions. Therefore, there will be some parts of your body closer to star A and some other parts of your body closer to star B. Eventually, the differential pull on the extended parts of your body will cause you to be oriented so that your longest dimension lines up with the gravitational field (same way a compass needle lines up with a magnetic field).

You'll end up with your head towards one star, being pulled (ever so slightly) towards that star, and your feet closer to the other star, being pulled by that other star. Your body (between these two extremities) will sense a tension (the sum of the two pulls).

This "tidal tension effect" is used to keep satellites oriented in a given way, so that (let's say) their antenna points to Earth. Once the satellite is in orbit, a boom is deployed and the satellite is oriented so that the boom is "vertical" compared to Earth. Once oriented like that, the tidal effect of Earth's gravity field will keep it from tumbling.

Answer 6

In theory you could stay in that spot forever, in the same way that you could balance a pencil on end and and it would stand there forever. But if you moved even an inch closer to one star than the other, then gravity would eventually pull you to whichever star was closer to you, just like the pencil, once it starts tipping even a little, then it leans more and more, faster and faster, until it is laying on its side.

Answer 7

Gravity is a simple matter of mass and the square of the distance. So standing exactly in the middle between two masses of any kind the gravity pulls would cancel out.

And yes, you would suffocate, but you would die happy knowing you were witnessing gravity cancelling out! That's the way I want to go...

Answer 8

Wow... not a single little bit of this assertion is real. not a generic yet infrequently achieved. possible not attain absolute 0. "Thawing" is a components regarding a factor transition, not temperature substitute in line with se and not something would "thaw" at 0K. you decide on appreciably greater temperatures than that. CERN is doing not something approximately cooling atoms. that's particularly heating common debris to completely fabulous temperatures with the help of accelerating them. LHC can not create black holes. No black hollow an accelerator smaller than the dimensions of a galaxy could create would survive for any macroscopic volume of time. purely because of the fact something by no ability handed off does not mean we don't understand what would take place. attempt status on the tracks mutually as a freight practice runs over them at 70mph. purely because of the fact it by no ability handed off to you does not mean we don't understand which you will get killed right now. So in short: none of that's dandy and additionally you look exceedingly silly. yet i think of I even have fed adequate troll for on the instant. :-)

Answer 9

Good question. Like everyone already said, yes you'd be balanced. By the way, the same is true here on Earth. If you built a lava "submarine" and went to the center of the Earth, you'd be weighless there.

Answer 10

ok, well this is a big if. if you have the exact same amount of atoms on each side of you and the middle of your body was exactly between the 2 stars, and u didnt move at all. then you would stay there. but technically if you have 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 on the left side of ur body and 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 001 atoms on the right side you would move to the right because of the extra gravity of that one single atom.