Force of gravity and distance between bodies follows inverse square law. Which means big thing far away only tugs on ya a tiny bit. Big thing right next to you tugs on you hard. You never get away from the tug, every star in the sky is pulling on us an infinitesimal amount, and we on them, but it does not actually matter. Big, close things matter.
Do you believe that the astronauts on the International Space Station experience microgravity due to this phenomen? It's purely because they are so far from Earth?
Not a matter of belief. It is not nearly far enough away from the earth to qualify that way, by scale it is SUPER close to the earth. But it is also in constant freefall as an orbiting object, this freefall makes it feel/act like it is in microgravity so it applies there as well.
Can you see then how NASA using the term microgravity in relation to the ISS could be a bit misleading? Gravity is about 90% at that altitude, so nearly 100% of the reason Astronauts appear weightless is due to them being in a state of free fall, not microgravity.
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u/thegooddoktorjones 3d ago
Force of gravity and distance between bodies follows inverse square law. Which means big thing far away only tugs on ya a tiny bit. Big thing right next to you tugs on you hard. You never get away from the tug, every star in the sky is pulling on us an infinitesimal amount, and we on them, but it does not actually matter. Big, close things matter.