What causes the sun to produce a force to counter gravity?
952509
The sun balances it's tendancy to gravitationally collapse with radiation pressure.  Once nuclear fusion stops, the radiation pressure won't be able to stop the sun from collapsing anymore.
797174
All things with mass (made of matter) have a gravitational pull.  Larger things, like planets, have a stronger pull.\n\nThe magnetic field is caused by the movement of metal under the surface of the earth.\n\nGravity is considered by scientists to be a weaker force than magnetism.\n\nThe magnetic field helps to block harmful rays from the Sun and we would probably fry if we had no magnetic field and no protection.\n\nOf course, if we had no gravity, we would have no atmosphere and would die much more quickly.\n\nDoes that help?
1156085
Gravity is not caused by the earth's spin. Gravity is a property inherent in matter, caused by the earth's mass.\n\nCentrifugal force causes things to push away from the center of rotation. So the centrifugal force of the earth's spin actually reduces the force of gravity -- but just a little, because gravity is much stronger than the centrifugal force.\n\nBut if you have a very sensitive detector, you can measure that the force of gravity at the North Pole is a bit greater than at the Equator, because there is no centrifugal force there.
128958
To simply, the sun is basically a gigantic collection of hydrogen gas that is being pushed together by an enormous force of gravity (each particle of hydrogen gas attracts each other).  When those atoms are forced together, they interact to form a continuious nuclear reaction which effectivly acts as a counter-force to the force of gravity.  So: Gravity pushes in, a nuclear explosion pushes out and the particles come to an equilibrium giving the sun a particular size.\n\nAs a star grows older, it begins to exhaust its supply of hydrogen fuel for the nuclear reaction and increases in size while decreasing in temperature.  At some point in the lifecycle of our sun, its size will actually expand to include the current position of the Earth.  However, current models indicate that Earth will move farther out in orbit, preventing its engulfment and destruction.\n\nAt any rate, as _our_ star (the Sun, sometimes called "Sol") continues to grow older, it will eventually shed these outer layers (thus creating a nebula) and condense into a very dense core and over time radiate away its energy.\n\nVery large stars can form black holes or neutron stars, regions of extreme gravitational forces, but our sun is small enough that it will form neither of these and just cool down into an inert ball of chemicals, no longer shining after it has radiated away its energy.\n\nHope that is helpful.
1163225
Actually, no force is necessary to keep the earth moving in the vacuum of space.\nNewton's laws on motion cover it pretty well.\n"An object placed in motion, stays in motion until another force\nchanges it's motion". (I'm paraphrasing here but I'm sure you get the idea)\n\nIf you could float in space and throw a rock, it would just keep going in that direction until it finally hits something. As it goes by larger objects, the gravity from these objects may change the direction of the rock slightly but it would take a very large object (think planet or moon) to really change the direction of the rock dramatically.\n\nGravity is the force that simply keeps the earth in it's relative distance from the sun, counteracting the centrifugal force from our revolving around the sun, thereby keeping us from flying off in a tangent, never to be seen again.   ;-)\n\nI hope this helps you.\nGood Luck!
443941
Even a simplified answer to this is very complicated, so bear with me...\n\nHopefully by now you've learned in school about how everything is made of atoms, and that atoms in turn are made up of smaller particles such as protons, neutrons and electrons.\n\nNow ask yourself:  How come I can stand on the ground?  Why don't I fall straight through the ground to the center of the earth?  What keeps gravity from "mushing" everything together, even electrons and protons?\n\nThere are four Fundamental Forces that we know of in the Universe.  The Fundamental Forces are the "rules" by which all the matter in the Universe interacts with each other.  The four that we know of are:  Gravity, the Electromagnetic Force, the Weak Nuclear Force and the Strong Nuclear Force.\n\nAll the matter in the universe has Gravity as a force, and Gravity is always a "pulling" force; things are always attracted to each other by Gravity.  Gravity is also a very long-reaching force; gravity holds the planets in orbit around the sun, holds the sun and other stars together in a galaxy; and Gravity even acts between other galaxies.  Gravity is a force that reaches all the way across the Universe.\n\nThen there's the Electromagnetic Force.  This is what makes electricity and magnets work.  The Electromagnetic Force (or EM for short) is actually much, much stronger than Gravity, but it works over a much, much shorter distance than Gravity does.  EM is also a "two-sided" force; there's a positive and a negative.  In magnets they're called "north" and "south."  Two charges that are opposite -- positive and negative -- attract each other, while two charges that are the same -- say, negative and negative -- repel, or push each other apart, like when you put the south poles of two magnets together, they want to push apart.\n\nAtoms are made up of protons (which have a positive EM charge) and electrons (which have a negative EM charge).  The protons are all at the center of the atom, while the electrons spin around the outside, making an electron "shell."  Since two things of the same charge repel each other, when two atoms come near each other the negative charges of their electrons push them away from each other.\n\nSo the reason you stand on the ground, why Gravity doesn't pull you down to the center of the earth, is because the electrons in the atoms of your feet are pushing against the electrons in the atoms in the ground.  And since the EM force is much stronger than Gravity, the EM force holds you up and keeps you from "mushing" into the ground.\n\n...Okay, what does this have to do with black holes?  I'm getting to that.\n\nMaybe you've learned in school that our solar system -- the earth, the other planets and the sun -- started out as a huge cloud of gas and dust.  Over billions of years Gravity pulled the atoms in this cloud closer and closer to each other, until they started condensing ("mushing" together) to form the earth, the planets and the sun.\n\nThe sun, you know, is not a solid ball, like the earth is.  It's a huge ball of gas, mostly hydrogen.  So, why doesn't Gravity mush the sun smaller until it becomes a solid ball?\n\nThe reason why is the same reason the sun shines.  The sun is about a million miles across.  That's a really, really huge amount of hydrogen.  Now, Gravity does pull the gas on the surface of the sun down towards the middle; so the atoms on the surface of the sun "fall" down towards the center.  That's half a million miles, which is a long way to fall for anything, even a hydrogen atom.  So when the hydrogen gets to the center, the weight of all the gas above it is so huge, that the atoms get pushed together really hard; hard enough to overcome the negative electrons on the outsides of the atoms.  The hydrogen atoms get "scrunched" together to form a different kind of atom --
156537
The force of gravitational attraction that the earth exerts on the moon tending to pull the moon towards its center, is exactly balanced by the centrifugal force (that tends to take the moon away from the earth) on the moon due to its (approximately) uniform circular motion.\n\nMathematically,\n\nFg   =     Fc
1050562
Gravity. The force itself is one of the weakest in science, and somewhat confounds the scientific community to how weak it really is comparison to such forces as Strong Nuclear force.
308950
In the Sun and stars, massive gravitational forces generate the conditions for fusion to occur naturally. The light we see from the sun is the result of tremendous fusion reactions that convert hydrogen to helium. On earth these conditions are much harder to achieve. Harnessing fusion power on Earth could be one of the best options for long term energy supply
433647
Here is the actual explanation to gravity, in simple terms:\n\nFor hundreds of years nobody understood where the gravitational force came from, they only knew that it was attractive, but what caused it was a mystery.  Newton himself, the man who discovered the gravitational equation, didn't have an answer.\n\nEinstein set out to discover the theory that explained actually caused objects to attract one another.  He succeeded in his famous General Theory of Relativity.  What does the theory say?  It says gravity is a result of of objects following curved space-time.  For example, imagine the sun is a bowling ball, and a trampoline is space.  (This is a simplified model since the trampoline is two dimensional)  Place the sun, the ball, at the center of the trampoline and it will make an indention.  Now imagine a marble rolling across the trampoline's surface.  When the marble, which could be the Earth, rolls into the curved part of the trampoline, it's path will start to curve around the ball.  \n\nSo, it isn't that the sun is magically pulling on the Earth by some mysterious invisible arm.  The Earth is simply caught in the Sun's indention of space-time.  \n\nWhy doesn't the Earth spiral into the Sun?  Two reasons: the Earth is constantly trying to go in a straight line while the curved space is causing it to want to spiral towards the sun.  As a result of this conflict, the Earth's path is a compromise between the two: it goes in a circle.  \n\nThe second reason is there is no friction in space to slow the Earth down, so it keeps the necessary speed to stay in its elliptical orbit.  If the Earth were to go slower, it would eventually spiral into the sun.  If it were to go faster, it would leave the Sun's indention in a straight line.
644891
No, because gravity is inflicted by the mass of an object... and we have a very massive object near by that will outweigh any gravity caused by a humble golf ball or a slightly proud bowling ball: it's called the Earth.\n\nBasically, gravity is a force of attraction, so a large object will attract a small object. That is what keeps the moon orbiting the Earth, and the planets orbiting the Sun. Even here on Earth objects are attracted to each other, but the Earth's gravity makes that force almost impossible to measure or detect.
1130182
Um... I think maybe pull... if something is rotating/turning it is creating it's own little gravity field (I think!) therefore making it easier to pull.  I'm no scientist but this is an educated guess.
788458
To understand this quandary you must look at a much bigger picture. since gravitational force is determined by an objects mass the earth actually exerts a much greater force on the object than the object exerts on the earth. Now this is where you must remember Newton's second law - if an unbalanced force acts on an object the object will accelerate in the direction of the force. The unbalanced force is the force of gravity the larger mass (earth in this case) exerts on the smaller object. The acceleration in the direction of the force is what we call gravity. It is true that the object exerts a reaction force but the maximum force it exerts is only the force of gravity it can generate based on it's mass. Since it weighs less it's force is not strong enough to move the earth.
168503
Finally, the gravitational pull between the Earth and Sun causes the Earth to travel around, or "orbit", the Sun at a velocity of 29.8 km/sec. At the same time, the Earth also turns on its axis causing the daily cycle of day and night. This "rotational velocity" is approximately .47 km/sec. That means that at the same time we're hurdling through space at nearly 67,000 mph, we're also spinning around in circles at over 1000 mph! Whew! Almost makes you dizzy, doesn't it?
278283
Nope, takes much more than that to overcome the gravity power of the sun, because that is what keeps earth in orbit.
616852
Gravity is the basic force. There is also a positive feedback effect; the more massive a cluster becomes, the more strongly it draws other particles and clusters toward it.
208514
Yes, anything with mass generates gravity.  Gravity will only effect things which have mass, so the fact that you are stuck down means you have mass, and thus gravity.