How does gravity work?

Gravity is a fundamental force of nature that causes objects with mass to attract each other. According to our best understanding, gravity arises because mass and energy curve the fabric of space and time, a concept described by Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Instead of thinking of gravity as a simple "force" pulling objects together, it is more accurate to imagine that massive objects bend the space around them, and other objects move along these curves, which we perceive as gravitational attraction. The reason objects with more mass have a stronger gravitational pull is that they create a greater curvature in space-time. For example, the Earth’s mass is large enough to curve space-time significantly, which keeps the Moon in orbit and causes objects to fall toward the Earth’s surface. Similarly, the Sun’s mass is even greater, so its gravitational influence extends far across the solar system, keeping planets in orbit. In simpler Newtonian terms, gravity is a force proportional to the product of two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, meaning that larger masses exert stronger gravitational forces. In summary, gravity works because mass tells space-time how to curve, and that curvature tells objects how to move. The more massive an object, the more it warps space-time, resulting in a stronger gravitational pull that affects other nearby objects. This elegant and well-tested explanation underpins much of modern physics and cosmology.