Facts about Gravity
- 08
Mercury experiences gravitational acceleration of 3.7 meters per second squared, meaning objects fall at only 38 percent the rate they do on Earth's surface.
- 07
Gravitational time dilation causes clocks aboard the International Space Station to run approximately 0.007 seconds faster per six months than clocks on Earth's surface due to weaker gravity at orbital altitude.
- 06
The International Space Station orbits Earth every 90 minutes at 28,000 kilometers per hour, held in circular motion by gravitational force balanced against its velocity.
- 05
Black holes possess such intense gravity that their escape velocity exceeds the speed of light at the event horizon, making them invisible to direct observation.
- 04
Proxima Centauri's gravity bends light from distant stars by 1.75 arcseconds, a measurement Arthur Eddington used in 1919 to verify Einstein's relativity predictions.
- 03
Einstein's 1915 General Theory of Relativity predicted that massive objects bend spacetime itself, a principle confirmed by observing starlight bending around the Sun during the 1919 solar eclipse.
- 02
Neptune's moon Triton orbits backwards at 2.4 kilometers per second, suggesting gravity captured it from the Kuiper Belt approximately 3.5 billion years ago.
- 01
At 9.8 meters per second squared, Earth's gravitational acceleration is about 2.5 times stronger than the Moon's, which measures only 1.62 meters per second squared.