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"Gravity doesn't do anything on its own, in the absence of other forces, the orbit of a steel nut around the earth would be stable" Actually, it wouldn't, beca
by gngeal 14y ago
"Gravity doesn't do anything on its own, in the absence of other forces, the orbit of a steel nut around the earth would be stable"
Actually, it wouldn't, because orbiting a celestial body radiates energy in form of gravitational waves, but in case of Earth's gravitational field and at the speed of orbiting satellites, this mode of losing energy is negligible.
- fhars 14y agoYes, but I still think that the tidal deformation of the earth under the gravitational influence of the steel nut will vastly dominate general relativistic effects like gravitational waves. You usually use neutron stars orbiting black holes to produce the latter.