Why is the earth not attracted to the sun? Mysterious gravity. What is centrifugal force
Warm sunlight, without which life on Earth would be impossible - also the Sun’s cunning way of destroying us. With the help of light, the star causes us and our planet to slowly fall towards itself, eventually consuming it. This process is explained by the Poynting-Robertson effect and applies to all objects in the Solar System, especially small ones.
All objects belonging to our planetary system rotate smoothly and slowly in a spiral, becoming closer and closer to the Sun with each turn.
The Poynting-Robertson effect follows the same principle that is used in laboratories to heat tiny particles of matter with a laser - the particles emit light energy in all directions, even if they received it from only one source. Bring a piece of iron to the fire: the side that faces the flame directly will be hotter, but nevertheless, if you touch the opposite side of the piece, you will feel that it is also warm. Although the extent to which an object radiates heat depends on the thermal conductivity of the substance, its size, and the heat source, almost every object will radiate heat received from the source. Orbital particles receive energy from only one source - the Sun - and radiate it in all directions. Therefore, the emitted energy gently pushes them towards the Sun.
But why do particles fall on the Sun? After all, impacts from solar photons, on the contrary, should repel them in the opposite direction. This would be the case if the particles were stationary, but they rotate. For example, imagine standing in vertical rain. As long as you simply stand, the rain does not interfere with your movements. But as soon as you start moving, the rain seems to stop being vertical. It starts to feel like it's pouring at a slight angle and hitting you in the face. The same thing happens with particles. As particles move around the sun, they come into conflict with solar energy. Instead of simply moving in a neutral direction, the particles are attracted to the Sun, like rain to your face. If particles could only radiate energy in one direction, they would simply gain more and more speed, but since they radiate in all directions, they generally slow down. And when they slow down their orbit, they fall into the power of the sun's gravity.
This is the cunning trap the Sun has created for you and me. Of course, its proximity gives us heat and energy to support life, but sooner or later the Earth will slow down and eventually fall onto its star. Certainly, cosmic dust In this regard, it is more difficult than for the planets, but we are also spiraling towards the end.
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Why doesn't the Earth-Moon system fall into the Sun?
Attraction by the Sun systems Earth-Moon very large.
Why doesn't this system fall into the Sun?
After all, the mass of the Sun is 329,000 times greater than the total mass of the Earth and the Moon.
Tides, caused by the mutual attraction of the Earth and the Moon, are stronger than solar ones. The Sun also causes relatively weak tides in the Earth-Moon system, stretching the Moon's orbit around the Earth and compressing it laterally.
Tidal actions from the Sun are weak because they depend on the DIFFERENCE of forces acting on the near and far sides of attracting objects, and the sizes of these objects are small compared to the distance to the Sun.
At the same time, the attraction of the Sun for the WHOLE Earth-Moon SYSTEM is very great.
Why doesn't it fall on the Sun? After all, the mass of the Sun is 329,000 times greater than the total mass of the Earth and the Moon. Of course, it would fall directly into the Sun if the Earth stopped in orbit, and did not move, as it does now, around the Sun at a speed of 30 kilometers per second. (At this speed, you can drive to Samara in 7 seconds!). And if not for the gravity of the Sun, the Earth would fly away tangentially to its orbit. The sun prevents this and forces all bodies solar system revolve around it.
Why do the bodies of the Solar System rotate in orbits at such high speeds?
Because the solar system was formed from a rapidly rotating cloud. The increase in its angular velocity was a consequence of the gravitational compression of the cloud towards its center of mass, in which the Sun was subsequently formed. Even before compression, the cloud already had angular and translational velocities. Therefore, the solar system not only rotates, but also moves in the direction of the constellation Hercules at a speed of 20 kilometers per second. And the Earth and the Moon also participate in this movement.
What is the reason for the translational and rotational movements of the cloud before its gravitational compression begins? “Our” cloud is a small part of one of the huge gas and dust complexes that fill our Galaxy. Of the numerous reasons that cause the complex movement of these complexes, we will name a few of the main ones.
Non-solid rotation of the Galaxy. Galaxy - no solid. The rotation speed of that part of the complex that is closer to the center of the Galaxy is greater than that which is further away; a pair of forces arises that rotate the gas and dust complex.
Magnetic fields of the Galaxy. The gas component contains ions, and the dust component contains iron and other metals. Interacting with complex galactic fields, the complexes move along magnetic field lines.
Supernova explosions. The supernova substance ejected during the explosion accelerates the surrounding gas and dust material at speeds of thousands of kilometers per second. “Novae” and other stars that shed their atmospheres are less effective.
Stellar wind. Hot giant stars, with their stellar wind, disperse the gas and dust matter from which they were formed,
There are many reasons. In the Galaxy, all objects have their own rotational and translational speeds.
The problem discussed in this note relates to the problems of cosmogony. Scientists have puzzled over it since the general understanding of the structure of our Solar system. This problem has been around for at least three hundred years. Now, in general, the problem has been qualitatively solved. Rakhil Menashevna wrote an informative note about this.
However, many mysteries still remain, especially in the quantitative calculation of the parameters of the solar system. We have already written about some of these riddles. Some of them were described by Rakhil Menashevna. For example, why there is a lot of water on Earth, and how this water got to us.
I would really like to understand how the formation of our Sun and Solar System occurred. But this problem may never be completely resolved. The period of revolution of the Sun around the center of the Galaxy is approximately 250 million years. During the life of the Sun, which is approximately 4.5 billion years, the Sun made 16-17 revolutions. During this time, apparently, our Sun moved very far from its sisters, who were born with it. Therefore, in order to understand the initial conditions, it would be necessary to establish which stars are sisters to our Sun. But, unfortunately, we cannot do this yet. But it would be great to say - that star over there was born from the same cloud as the Sun, but this one was next to it at the time of birth.
For example, within a radius of 15 light years from the Sun there are two systems with a white dwarf. These are Sirius and Procyon. These systems are similar to each other. Were they born with the Sun or not?
Your unexpected question also interested me. I think that the assumption about the formation of Sun, Sirius and Procyon from one common cloud is true.
I also found in the reference book P.G. Kulikovsky that these stars have rather small relative radial velocities: they approach the Sun at speeds of 8 and 3 km/s, respectively, while most radial velocities of stars lie in the range of 20 - 30 km/s. Perhaps these stars still rotate together around the center of the Galaxy.
The purpose of my short articles is to explain the essence of the phenomena under consideration. I could supplement them with many details, but I try not to do this; even more details could be taken from the literature, and even more, as you rightly noted, are unknown to science.
Dear RMR_stra! Very interesting information! I've had an idea for quite some time!
Let's pretend that Sirius or Procyon were born with Sun from the same cloud. We know the age of the Sun. This is about 4.5 billion years. This is approximately half the lifespan of the Sun. White dwarfs cannot have a mass greater than twice the mass of the Sun. More likely somewhere around 1.5 solar masses. But stars with a mass two to one and a half times that of the Sun and live the same number of times less than the Sun, approximately, of course. But this means that white dwarfs in the Saturn and Procyon systems appeared quite recently. It is possible that our ancestors saw the shedding of the shells of these stars in the form of some kind of grandiose celestial fireworks. There is a so-called disk of Nebry. It is estimated to be about 5,000 years old. It has some arcs in the starry sky. The discarded shell should have looked like such sparkling arcs in the sky of the Earth. On the disk, the arcs are believed to be adjacent to the seven stars of the Pleiades. And they are located in almost the same sector of the sky as Sirius and Procyon.
Moreover, one can even assume that the ejected shell reaching the Solar System several hundred years after the ejection could cause increased condensation of moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere (due to an increase in the flow of charged particles), i.e. rain. Such rain could last the entire time during which the central part of the shell passes the Earth. And this time should be calculated in several tens of days.
Law universal gravity tells us that all bodies are in contact with each other gravitational interaction, that is, they are mutually attracted to each other. Moreover, the force with which one body attracts another is directly proportional to the mass of this body. If the masses of the bodies are incomparable with each other, and one body is hundreds or thousands of times heavier than the other, then the heavier body will completely attract the lighter one.
Every day we see some object falling to the ground. It is planet Earth, as a physical body, that attracts to itself a thing that has lost its support.
But the Earth itself is close to an even heavier celestial body- The sun. The Sun is 333,000 times the mass of the Earth, so why doesn't the Earth fall into the Sun?
The thing is that the force with which the Earth is attracted to the Sun is balanced by the centrifugal force acting on the Earth as it moves in a circle around the Sun.
What is centrifugal force
Centrifugal force is a force that acts on bodies when they rotational movement around the circumference. In this case, the rotating body tends to fly away from the center of this circle with constant acceleration. Centrifugal acceleration depends on the speed of rotation of the body. The higher the speed, the greater the acceleration.
Case in point. Take a ball suspended on a string. In a calm state, the ball is under the influence gravitational force The earth hangs on a rope in a vertical downward direction. It is the force of gravity of the Earth that acts on it. Only the tension of the thread prevents it from falling completely to the ground.
If the ball is spun in a horizontal plane at high speed, centrifugal force will begin to act on it. The ball will no longer hang vertically downwards, but will begin to rotate in a horizontal plane and seem to move away from the center of rotation. You can even physically feel how the rotating ball stretches the rope. And the same tension force of the thread holds the ball near the center of rotation. If you spin the ball to such a speed that the centrifugal force becomes greater than the tension force of the thread, the thread will break and the ball will fly away in a straight line perpendicular to the radius of its rotation. But at the same time, it will not rotate further, the centrifugal force will disappear and, after flying a little, the ball will fall to the ground (you understand why).
Centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation
A similar interaction is observed when the Earth moves around the Sun. The centrifugal force acting on the Earth as it rotates moves it away from the center of rotation (that is, from the Sun). But if the Earth stops revolving around the Sun and stops, the Sun will pull it towards itself.
On the other hand, the gravitational force of the Sun balances the centrifugal force of the Earth's rotation. The Sun attracts the Earth, the Earth cannot fly away from the center of its rotation and moves in a constant orbit around the Sun. But if the speed of rotation of the Earth increases many times, and the centrifugal force exceeds the gravitational force of the Sun, then the Earth will fly away into open space and for some time it will fly like a comet until it falls under the gravity of another body with an even greater mass.
Look up, there is a ceiling or sky. Look down to see the floor or ground. We use the words “up” and “down” dozens of times a day without thinking about their meaning. We say: “What you throw up will definitely fall down.” The ball flies up to the sky and then falls down. But now we see many stars in the sky. Why don't they fall down like a ball?
What is top and bottom
Wait a minute! Do the words “up” and “down” really mean what we think they mean? If we fly to South Pole, to Antarctica, then we will not have to walk there upside down. Wherever we go on Earth, there will be sky above and solid soil under our feet.
What we call “bottom” has a lot to do with the force of gravity (gravity). Objects fall towards the ground - we call this "down" because they are attracted by the gravity below our feet. But if we move away from the Earth in a spaceship, then the concepts of “up” and “down” will lose their meaning. During space flight there is only huge empty space between planets and stars. Falling or "flying" stars are actually meteorites, fragments of rock or ice, drawn from space to the Earth by the force of its gravity
Space, gravity, up and down
In space it is impossible to determine where is up and where is down. Since there is truly no gravity in space, the astronaut is unable to determine where is up and where is down. The astronaut can walk on the ceiling of the ship or on the floor. At the same time, he will not feel any difference: “up” and “down” appear when we are somehow oriented in the gravitational field, that is, in the gravitational field. As soon as gravity decreases or practically disappears, the concepts of “up” and “down” lose their meaning.
Everything, however, changes during landing spaceship. The force of gravity begins to manifest itself. When the ship approaches the Earth, the astronaut immediately remembers where is up and where is down. Every planet, like every star, has a gravitational force. Giant gravity is the force that holds the nine planets of our solar system, including the Earth, in orbit around the Sun.
So why don't stars fall?
The stars of the night sky are cosmic bodies that are trillions and trillions of kilometers away from us. The attraction between them and the Earth is negligible. But if someday these stars approached the Earth, then it would fall on the stars, attracted by their gigantic gravity, and not vice versa. So, alas! Stars do not and will not fall to Earth. Only meteorites fall to Earth - these pieces of rocks or ice that people mistook for stars. Romantic, but wrong.
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