How can things stay on the Moon with low (or zero) gravity?
It's common for people to be confused about the situation with gravity on the Moon. Related questions include:
- How does the flag stay on the Moon if there's no gravity?
- Why don't the astronauts float away on the Moon?
First of all, there is gravity on the Moon. It's about 1/6th as strong as gravity on Earth. This is weak enough that astronauts can jump and throw things much higher than they could on Earth, but it's easily strong enough to pull them back down again. If something is on the ground, it's not going to float away just because the gravity is low—even very weak gravity would still keep it on the ground.
Some people wonder why there is gravity on the Moon. This comes from the misunderstanding that all of space is "zero gravity". This is not true. Gravity is associated with mass—anything with mass has gravity. The Moon has plenty of mass to create a decent gravity field.
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