Why does the Earth and the rest of things in the Universe float?

Question

Hi, I'm all new to the astronomy things, I want to ask why planets and stars are floating in the Universe? is it because of the gravity? but how if the Earth is alone in the Universe, will it still be floating? then why?

Answer 1

If you mean by "float" to remain motionless, then it depends on your field of reference.  Motion has to be defined by referring to other objects or points.  If you look at the moon compared to the Earth from outer space then it may appear that Earth remains motionless.  But if you step back a little further and look at the Earth compared to the sun, then it will be moving from that reference point.  Another example is if you have two cars side by side moving 100 mph when you look at the other car from within one car it will appear that neither is moving.  It isn't until you take into account the reference of telephone poles, other cars, road markings, etc, that you have a reference point that the cars are both moving.

Answer 2

Everything floats because there is no gravity outside of objects to make them just "fall".  

Answer 3

Wait. . . What?

Answer 4

are you alright???

Answer 5

no. Earth wont float. theres nothing holding it place. there is no beginning or ending spot of the universe. everything  adheres to the laws of physics.

Answer 6

No gravity.

Answer 7

Sometimes they don't! Occasionally objects do crash into each other. For example a meteoroid is only 'floating' until it impacts the Earth's atmosphere. However, out in space there is very little around to impact; even though stars and planets are very large objects, the distances between them are truly enormous, and most large objects float around for millions of years without colliding with any other large object. They are all actually falling, because they are all being affected by gravity, but they almost always end up falling around each other rather than directly at each other, and so collisions are quite rare. It's kind of like how cars on a road are all 'floating' on the road, and all moving around each other, but they hardly ever hit each other.

Answer 8

Glance at a bird or a jet airplane for a moment and look away. The bird or airplane appeared to just be hanging there... The same is with your impression of the Earth just hanging there in space...Maybe you saw a model of the Universe somewhere...

In fact the Earth is a giant ball of water, granite rock, iron and nickle plus bunches of other stuff which is hurtling through space at a

really tremendous speed as it circles around and around the Sun,

our Star. The earth makes kind of a circle (not perfectly round) which

has a radius of about 93,000,000 Miles once every year (definition

of a year) around the Sun. So it is simply "not just floating up there." It is booking it, really moving fast around the Sun. In fact, while the surface of the Earth seems okay and all, in actual fact, down near

the Equator in places such as Panama, and the Philippines, etc., the surface of the Earth is moving around and around as the Earth spins at over 1000 Miles per hour. Farther up in the Northern Hemisphere close to the North Pole, that speed of rotation is down to a real small number because of the smaller diameter of circle that any point on the Earth makes each day. The same is also true going south of the Equator toward the South Pole.

All of the planets in our solar system are orbiting the Sun. They all

fly around in orbits of different radius, and at different speeds. Yes,

the Sun's gravity is what holds them in these orbits and will continue to do so for a long time to come.

Everything in space is moving. What you must realize is that in relation to the distances from us, their movement is minute by comparison. In actual fact they are going like crazy if we were to look at things like velocity in Miles Per Hour. But, what is 1500 Miles Per Hour compared to 1000 trillion Miles or 100,000 Trillion Miles? They are just a teeny fraction of the arc of movement that the object is making.

Remember that bird? It may seem to be floating in the Sky, but is really making about 15 or 25 Miles per hour of flying speed. The big Commercial Jet I mentioned, well, it looks like it is just hanging there but it is really doing about 250 to 400 Miles Per Hour unless it is taking off, or landing. Even then, it must move at around 140 Miles per Hour to stay aloft (keep flying).

Speed is much more apparent when things are closer to us.

Also notice that things moving towards us, or directly away from us also appear to just hang there. You cannot get a true appreciation for their movement until you get off to the side of them. And my last example is in baseball or softball...the catcher does not have any appreciation of the speed of a ball thrown by the pitcher. All that the catcher can see is movement of the ball either up or down, to the left or to the right a little bit, because the ball is coming right at him.

The Earth is not alone in the Universe. The earth is one of eight planets orbiting our Sun in what we call a Solar system. In the Milky Way Galaxy there are more than 200 billion other stars which each have their own solar systems. Beyond our Milky Way Galaxy there are thousands and thousands and thousands of other galaxies which each have billions of stars within them. And, each of those stars can have their own solar system of planets just like our sun has.

If you wish to check any of this out, you can do so on a clear night. Wait for the Moon to come out and use some wire or tape to tape a stick into some low hanging branches of a tree...so that the stick points right at the Moon - dead center. Look at the stick again in maybe 30 minutes. The Moon has moved... you can do the same thing with Stars if you can get a Tripod with a pointing arm

attached to it. Locate a prominent star and aim the pointing arm at that star in the early evening. Go back and look again in about 2 hours. The star will have moved from where you thought it was to some new position. Yes, things are moving all around us.