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 Weekend
Spotlight: The Wonders of Gravity
 Gravity
Spotlight Activities
Gravity
Web sites
Explore Gravity at Home
Gravity Fun Facts
- Gravity doesn’t stop in outer space; it keeps going forever. Gravity can reach so far, it
can pull entire galaxies together and cause them to collide.
- Gravity exists between all objects with mass, no matter how large or small they are.
You are gravitationally attracted to this computer screen! However, the force of attraction depends on the mass and distance between the objects. The Earth, being so massive, attracts you more than the computer screen.
- The pull of gravity from the moon causes the Earth’s tides. The moon
exerts a stronger pull on the water on the side of the Earth facing the moon
than it does on the rest of the Earth.
- If you were on asteroid Ceres, and you threw a rock as hard as you could, it would go into orbit.
- A ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil both depend upon the pull of gravity to
function. If you were in space, or in the space station, neither would work.
- Astronauts in orbit are still in strong Earth gravity. They are weightless not because of a lack of gravity, but because they are in free fall, constantly falling around Earth.
Gravity keeps them circling in orbit.
- Gravity at the equator is slightly less than at the North Pole, because the Earth bulges at the equator and you are further from the center of the Earth. If you buy gold on the equator and sell it on the North Pole, you could make a small amount of
profit -- minus traveling expenses, of course!
Gravity Web Sites
http://@kids.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2001/news-homehome.asp
Information on building in zero gravity
http://@kids.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2000/news-expedition1.asp
Information on the International Space Station and researching in
microgravity http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/earth/features/watkins.html
A question and answer session with the project scientist for the Gravity
Recovery and Climate Experiment
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