BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Gravity on the Internatio­nal Space Station is actually about 90 per cent of gravity on the ground

-

Orbiting at an altitude of only 400km above Earth, the Internatio­nal Space Stations (ISS) is so close to our planet that gravity barely differs from what is experience­d on the ground. Astronauts are weightless for the same reason as someone unfortunat­e enough to be in a lift after its cable has snapped – because, as fast as they fall towards the lift floor, the lift floor falls away from them. It is not obvious that the ISS is falling. That is because it has sideways motion. This means that, as fast as gravity curves its path down towards the Earth’s surface, the Earth’s surface curves away from it. ISS therefore falls forever in a circle, never reaching the

 ??  ?? To us it appears as if these apples are floating; in fact they are falling, only floating because the ISS is falling too
To us it appears as if these apples are floating; in fact they are falling, only floating because the ISS is falling too

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom