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submitted 1 year ago by Jeredin@lemm.ee to c/askscience@lemmy.world

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

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[-] FlowVoid@midwest.social 3 points 1 year ago

I think the best way to visualize it is that when you are inside a star, you are effectively "standing" on a smaller star. Everything behind you can theoretically be ignored. When you are very close to the center, you are standing on a very tiny star.

[-] Jeredin@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

So instead of the hole density from one side to the other, I only have the density from the center to its surface, am I understanding that correctly?

[-] FlowVoid@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm not sure what you mean by "surface".

Imagine you are standing on the surface of Earth, and you weighed 200 pounds.

Now imagine Earth were magically transported to the center of the sun, completely replacing an equal volume of solar core. Inside the very middle of the sun, standing on planet earth, you would still weigh 200 pounds. The gravity of all the solar mass surrounding the Earth would cancel out.

If you traveled upwards, to the surface of the sun, your weight would increase. At the sun's surface, you would weigh 5400 pounds.

this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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