I’ve read that at the center of large celestial bodies there’s zero gravity (or close to). While confirmation would be nice, if true, I’m wondering how large that area can actually be and moreover, does it scale up with more mass and/or even size - that is, does the sun have a larger center area of low (zero?) gravity than the earth and so on with evermore mass. Or is that area the same regardless of mass’ size?

Thank you

  • FlowVoid@midwest.socialEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    Yes you can, as long as you are inside a perfectly spherical shell.

    The net gravitational force on a point mass inside a spherical shell of mass is identically zero! Physically, this is a very important result because any spherically symmetric mass distribution outside the position of the test mass m can be build up as a series of such shells. This proves that the force from any spherically symmetric mass distribution on a mass inside its radius is zero.

    From: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Mechanics/sphshell2.html#wtls