Why do you think gaseous planets have greater gravitational pull?
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Why do you think gaseous planets have greater gravitational pull?
Why do the gas giant planets have so much gravity when they do not have solid cores like the terrestrial planets? Anything that has mass produces a gravitational field. “Giant planets,” as their name implies, have a lot of mass, and, hence, have a big gravitational tug.
Why does Jupiter have a gravitational pull?
The gravity on Jupiter is greater than the gravity on Earth because Jupiter is more massive. Although Jupiter is a great deal larger in size, its surface gravity is just 2.4 times that of the surface gravity of Earth. This is because Jupiter is mostly made up of gases.
Why is Jupiter a planet if it’s just gas?
The biggest planet in our solar system is Jupiter. We call this planet a gas giant because it is primarily made of hydrogen and helium. The planet has the highest mass in the solar system—greater than all the other planets in the solar system combined. As it is a gas giant, its density is 24\% of Earth’s.
Does gravity pull on gases?
Yes gravity pulls on gas molecules. That is why the atmosphere doesn’t just float off into space. The gist is that the time between collisions is very short in the lower atmosphere, and the distances very short. The mean free path at atmospheric pressure is only about 70 nanometers.
Do gas planets have gravitational pull?
Surface gravity is a function of both total mass and size. Gas giants are massive, so their total gravity is high, but they are also large, meaning their density is low, which results in their surface gravities being decreased.
How far is Jupiter’s gravitational pull?
Let’s calculate: Jupiter is 318 times more massive than Earth and 410 million miles away. According to Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, Jupiter pulls you up 34 million times less than Earth pulls you down.
Why does gravity not pull air down?
The reason why the atmosphere is still thick after billions of years is because you have two net effects on the air molecules, gravity, which keeps it as close as possible to the ground, and inertia, who has the opposite net effect. So as long as the molecules do not slow down they “orbit” our planet.