Why does space have no gravity?

Gravity is what grounds us on our planet.

It is what accelerates objects when they fall from a height.

Each matter with mass has some amount of gravitational force that it exerts on the things around it.

All of us must have seen that people in space don’t walk around.

They normally seem to float around in it, through the stars and the blackness of it.

Does this mean space has no gravity? How does this work? Let us take a look

What is gravity?

Before we go to the why let us look at the what.

The scientific definition of gravity is “Gravity or gravitation, is a natural phenomenon by which all things with mass or energy—including planets, stars, galaxies, and even light—are brought toward one another.” 

It is crucial to understand that gravity plays a very important role in the entirety of the universe.

Hence, existence and nonexistence have significant impacts on multiple things.  

What is space?

Science defines space as the boundless three-dimensional extent to which objects and events have relative position and direction. 

The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe.

Space is everything that surrounds our planet, solar system, and more.

It has many implications on us and has extreme impacts on everything else in general. 

Does space have no gravity?

First of all, one thing we have to establish is the fact that there is gravity in space.

Not just there is, there is a lot of gravity in space. It technically exists everywhere. 

It is true that the further we get from the Earth, the lesser the gravitational force gets, but this does not mean it ceases to exist completely. It dies off quite slowly too, as compared to other nuclear forces. 

When we start getting closer to other large bodies in space: the moon, Mars, or the sun; its gravity dominates over that of the Earth. 

At this point, we can start neglecting the gravity that the Earth has.

As gravity is everywhere in space’ objects in space always keep on falling. 

Objects keep falling towards the earth, towards the sun, and towards the galactic center.

There are two reasons that objects seem to be floating without gravity in space when they are falling.

International space station

Weightlessness Astronauts aboard the International Space Station experience weightlessness due to the absence of tension and strain caused by externally imposed mechanical contact forces.

Though mechanical, non-gravitational forces work on a body's inertia and overcome it, such as in a centrifuge, a spinning space station, or within an accelerating vehicle, a sense of weight is generated, even when the gravitational field is zero.

Because they are not subjected to the mechanical forces that create the sense of weight, an item in a straight free fall, or in a more complicated inertial free fall (such as within a low gravity airplane or within a space station), all experience weightlessness.

Exposure to weightlessness has been shown to have certain negative consequences on human health with the development of space stations that may be inhabited for lengthy periods of time.

Astronauts must tie themselves to the seat in space toilets, such as the one on the International Space Station.

Astronauts in space

Gravity in space is lesser than that on Earth and that is obvious from how astronauts float around in space and even in a space shuttle.

There is certain weightlessness about being in space due to the very little air resistance present in outer space.

Hence the "lack of gravity" that we often refer to is more about the speed, free-falling, and other properties of objects in space rather than just the reduction in the gravitational force.

This can be observed in astronauts in space.

Zero gravity areas in space

Due to the gravitational attraction, all planets, asteroids, and comets in our solar system orbit the sun.

Because it weighs 99.86 percent of our solar system, the sun exerts an enormous gravitational pull.

The celestial bodies have enough mass to be affected by the sun's gravitational pull.

The tremendous gravitational force that the black hole produces traps any particle or wave.

Two reasons for the flotation of objects in space 

First, space is very large and relatively empty by earth standards.

We can understand this in the context of something on our planet. 

When we jump off a bridge, we know that we are falling because we feel the air whooshing up, see the mountains shooting up, see the water fast approaching, and then feel ourselves hit the water. 

As space is relatively empty, there is barely any or little air to feel.

This air whizzing past us as we fall can be barely felt and there are no landmarks to indicate that we are moving.

Space is so large that it takes us from hours to years of falling through space until we hit the surface of a planet. 

This is assuming we aim properly when we do hit, instead of the seconds it takes jumping off a bridge.

The other reason is that gravity is not so evident in space.

This is because objects tend to orbit planets instead of hitting them. 

Science defines orbiting an object as the property that an object falls towards a planet due to gravity and continually misses it. 

As space is so large and planets are so small by comparison, it's very hard to hit planets.

The objects in space typically slingshot in hyperbolic paths around planets or slip into orbits around them. 

Conclusion 

Falling in circles around a planet instead of smashing into it doesn't seem like the gravity we're used to on earth, but it's the same kind of falling.

Astronauts in orbit around the earth are not experiencing "no gravity". 

They are experiencing almost all of earth's gravity, but with nothing to stop them. 

This is known as "free fall". Freefall looks like floating to a person in the falling frame of reference. 

Hence, we can conclude that space cannot be said to have any gravity.

It is more about the fact that the impacts of gravity differ as the volume of gravitational force differs everywhere.