Yes, and it is possible that the Gas Giants harbour life. It seems that life is widespread throughout the universe. However, making the leap to intelligent life requires a huge amount of freak conditions.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
A Stephen Hawking Page to this Forum?
Collapse
X
-
It's a perfectly sensible question Denise.
The point is that the planets - or our moon - ARE falling. But their forward velocity means they never reach the attracting mass.
It's well explained by Newton's cannonball. A thought experiment that imagines a cannoball fired horizontally from a very high mountain. As the muzzle velocity increases to about 7,300 metres per second it never hits the ground and goes into orbit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_cannonball
Doug
Comment
Comment