How does gravity work?

Gravity is a fundamental force of nature that causes objects with mass to attract one another. At its most basic level, gravity is the reason why things fall to the ground, why planets orbit the Sun, and why galaxies hold together. The classical explanation of gravity comes from Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation, which states that every two masses exert an attractive force on each other. The strength of this force depends on the masses involved and the distance between them—the greater the masses and the closer they are, the stronger the gravitational pull. However, our modern understanding of gravity comes from Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Instead of viewing gravity as a force acting at a distance, Einstein described it as a curvature of space and time (spacetime) caused by mass and energy. Massive objects like planets and stars bend the fabric of spacetime around them, and this curvature directs the paths that objects follow, which we perceive as gravitational attraction. In summary, gravity is caused by mass and energy influencing the shape of spacetime, and this effect governs the motion of objects throughout the universe.

Gravity is a fundamental force of nature that causes objects with mass to attract one another. At its simplest, gravity is the reason why things fall to the ground, why the Earth orbits the Sun, and why the Moon orbits the Earth. According to classical physics, gravity is a force that pulls objects toward each other proportionally to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them—this is described by Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation. However, our modern understanding of gravity comes from Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Instead of viewing gravity as a force acting at a distance, general relativity describes gravity as the effect of massive objects bending or curving the fabric of space and time around them. Objects move along these curved paths, which we perceive as gravitational attraction. For example, the Earth’s mass curves space-time in such a way that the Moon’s natural motion keeps it orbiting the Earth rather than flying off into space. In summary, gravity arises because mass tells space-time how to curve, and curved space-time tells objects how to move. This elegant explanation unifies gravity with the geometry of the universe and has been confirmed by many experiments and observations, from the bending of light around stars to the precise orbit of planets.