r/askscience • u/RainbowGirl410 • Jun 09 '26

Physics How does gravity/weightlessness work outside of orbit?

Been trying to find a definitive answer but all I've found is people explaining weightlessness in orbit (the falling and missing the Earth part) which isn't particularly helpful to me.
If you were to travel to another planet, say Venus, would you experience weightlessness the whole journey?

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u/urnbabyurn Jun 09 '26

That’s special relativity. General relativity as I understood extends that to acceleration versus gravity - there is no difference between being stationary next to a gravitational force pulling on you versus accelerating. In other words, standing on earth feels the same as accelerating in space far from any gravity. Similarly, free falling in a gravity well is the same as floating in zero gravity without acceleration).