What makes the sun float? Maybe the whole solar system is actually sinking
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What makes the sun float? Maybe the whole solar system is actually sinking

[From: ] [author: ] [Date: 12-04-09] [Hit: ]
). So not everything sinks .........

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If you're going to think like that ask yourself why Australians who live "down under" look up at the sky and not down. We all know the Earth is a globe, why don't those in the Southern hemisphere fall off?

The reason is because gravity defines what "down" means, and down is towards the centre of the earth, so wherever we are on the Earth's surface down is towards the centre of the earth. Likewise in the Solar system "down" is towards the centre of the sun which is what the Earth and other planets are orbitting. Outside of our solar system (from the perspective of the stars) "down" is towards the centre of the galaxy.

The resaon we don't feel the gravitational pull towards the sun or towards the centre of the galaxy is because we're falling in that direction at the same rate as the Earth just like the astronauts on the ISS don't feel Earth's gravitational pull because they're falling towards the earth at the same speed as their space station (you can momentarily feel this weightlessness caused by falling when you're in an elevator just as it starts going down, or on a fairground ride or when you go over a bump in the road in a car).

So in answer to your question the sun is sinking - it's sinking down towards the centre of the galaxy but it's travelling so quickly along the horizontal to the centre of the galaxy that the curvature of the centre of the galaxy falls away at about the same rate as the sun is falling towards it, which is what we call an orbit.

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Float in what? The sun and the planets are in space, in a vacuum. They move as influenced by gravity only.

They don't "float" or "sink", those terms have no meaning in this situation.

this goes on my list of idiotic questions, right next to
"If earth is round, why doesn't water fall when upside down in space?"

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The sun, and the whole solar system is being attracted to the centre of the galaxy.

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A cork doesn't sink. Neither does a ship (hopefully!). So not everything sinks ...
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