Gravity is a fundamental force that dictates the orbits of planets around the Sun and holds moons in their paths within our solar system. Every celestial body, including planets, possesses its own gravitational pull, a force that varies significantly due to their distinct characteristics.
What Determines Gravitational Pull?
A planet’s gravitational pull is primarily determined by two fundamental properties: its mass and its radius. The more mass a planet possesses, the stronger its gravitational force.
The second factor, a planet’s radius, accounts for the distance from its center to its surface. Gravity weakens with increasing distance from the center of mass. Consequently, even a very massive planet might have a comparatively weaker surface gravity if its mass is spread out over a very large volume, placing its “surface” far from its gravitational center.
The Planet with the Mightiest Pull
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has the greatest gravitational pull. Its immense mass is the primary reason for this powerful attraction. Jupiter is more than 300 times more massive than Earth, containing over two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our solar system combined.
Despite its enormous size and radius, which would typically reduce surface gravity by placing a theoretical surface farther from its center, Jupiter’s overwhelming mass ensures its gravitational dominance. At its cloud tops, a person would experience a gravitational force approximately 2.4 times stronger than on Earth.
Comparing Gravity on Other Planets
While Jupiter has the strongest gravitational pull, gravity varies considerably across other planets in our solar system. On Mars, for example, the surface gravity is much weaker, around 38% of Earth’s gravity. This means a person weighing 100 pounds on Earth would weigh only about 38 pounds on Mars.
Venus has a surface gravity that is approximately 90% of Earth’s. Conversely, Saturn, another gas giant like Jupiter, has a surface gravity only slightly greater than Earth’s, at about 1.07 times Earth’s gravity. This is because Saturn, despite its large mass, is significantly less dense than Earth, causing its “surface” (defined at a specific atmospheric pressure) to be far from its center of mass. Neptune’s surface gravity is about 1.14 times that of Earth.
What It Feels Like on Jupiter
Experiencing Jupiter’s immense gravitational pull would be hypothetical. As a gas giant, Jupiter lacks a solid surface, consisting instead of layers of gas that progressively become denser and hotter with depth.
The Galileo probe, for instance, was crushed by Jupiter’s atmospheric pressure after only 58 minutes, reaching pressures nearly 100 times that of Earth’s surface. Deeper within the atmosphere, pressures can reach millions of times Earth’s surface pressure, leading to temperatures hot enough to vaporize any known material. Survival would be impossible.