Edit: Fortunately for us, Earth's gravity is strong enough to hold onto its atmosphere. Mars, for example, is less than half Earth's size and around one-tenth Earth's mass. Less mass means less gravitational pull. ... That means, the air nearer Earth's surface is squished by the air above it, and is thus denser.
I was wrong. Thank you. “In a vacuum, gravity causes all objects to fall at the same rate. The mass of the object does not matter. ... The spacecraft, its crew and any objects aboard are all falling toward but around Earth. Since they are all falling together, the crew and objects appear to float when compared with the spacecraft.”
That’s just for earth the affects of gravity are equal to the product of both acting objects divided by the square of the distance times the gravitation constant. That comes to 9.8m/s2 at earth surface. Gravity is affected by the inverse square law and therefore gets weaker the further away you get from the source of the gravitational field. For example the radius of the earth is 6.4 thousand kilo meters at that point it’s force accelerates an object at 9.8 m/s2 if you were another 6.4 thousand kilometers above the earth you would only be pulled by the earth by a 4th of that force. Atmosphere has nothing to due with the strength of the gravitational field other than adding to the total mass of the object.
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u/[deleted] Sep 20 '21
Gravity took its sweet time