Research says gravitational pull varies from planet to planet
We have all heard that if we went to the moon, our weight there will be one-sixth of that on earth. Similarly, if something weighs 100 kgs on earth, that will be only 38 kgs on Mars. But till recently, Earth, Moon and Mars were the only three places in the solar system for which scientists had information about gravity and weight ratios. But two esteemed astrophysicists from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), James O’ Donoghue and Rami Mandow (founder of Australian space-community SpaceAustralia), recently analysed a comparative data of the gravitational pulls of the other moving bodies in the solar system.
How was the analysis done?
For the analysis, scientists chose a ball and left it hanging above the solar system which would fall any moment, from a distance of a kilometre. The idea was to find how quickly it reaches the surface of the bodies on the solar system, through which the researchers can understand the difference in gravity of objects. The scientist duo has released an illustration video lasting for about 88 seconds that clearly reveals a ball dropping on these solar system bodies, during which they were able to calculate the speed and the time elapsed according to real earth time.
What did the scientists reveal?
On October 3rd, the scientists shared the video through their social media platform, Twitter. The JAXA space scientists named this thesis “Gravitational Forces of the Solar System.” The scientist duo used data from NASA’s Planetary Fact Sheet to carry on with this experiment.
Data from the video
The video revealed that the sun has the strongest gravitational pull and attracted the ball in less than 2.7 seconds. The largest planet Jupiter was next in line, as it attracted the ball in 9.0 seconds proving its gravitational pull is pretty strong too. Neptune secured the third position as it was able to attract the ball in 13.4 seconds, not too far from Jupiter. Saturn lost the race to Neptune by 0.4 seconds, exhibiting the attraction rate of 13.8 seconds. Earth was next in line and attracted the ball in 14.3 seconds showcasing moderate gravitational pull. Uranus and Venus both attracted the ball in 15 seconds and exhibited weak gravitational capacity. Mercury and Mars also each took 23.2 seconds for the ball to reach their respective surfaces. The earth’s moon Luna took 35.3 seconds, while Pluto took a record of 56.7 seconds, justifying its position as a dwarf planet and lacking a minimum gravitational pull. The last one to reach the finishing line was the largest asteroid Ceres that took 84.3 seconds to attract the ball to its surface.
It is important to note that to define ‘surface,’ scientists use 1 bar of atmospheric pressure, as the other planets do not have surface per se, like our home planet. One must also note that the surface gravity at the equator of the solar system objects was used for the above-stated calculations and intentionally ignored the rotational effects of them, for simplification.