What is free fall in stellar terms?

1 Answer
Phillip E. · Azhar A.
Jul 21, 2016

Technically free fall is motion under gravity.

Explanation:

An object is said to be in free fall if there are no external forces acting on it. In Newtonian mechanics the only force is the "force of gravity". General relativity states that gravity is not a force, a body is following a geodesic in curved spacetime.

Thus all stars and planets are in free fall as their motion is purely defined by gravity.

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