this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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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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[–] octoperson@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you had a planet that was hollow in the center*, the entire hollow region would have zero gravity. You could have a thin-skinned planet with the entire interior an empty weightless void. I doubt any planets like this actually exist.

* Assuming radial symmetry. If you can represent the planet as concentric spherical shells then you're good.

[–] awwwyissss@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A center of gravity is a single point and couldn't be expanded to fill a planet's interior, even if the space was only 1m^3

[–] Rayleigh@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

You're right but that was not the point. The comment just explained that at any point inside a hollow sphere gravity forces cancel out so that effectively there is no gravity.