Formation and evolution of the Solar System apart by tidal interactions. Afterwards, all that will remain of the Sun is a white dwarf, an extraordinarily dense object, 54% its original mass but only the size of the Earth. Initially, this white dwarf may be 100 times as luminous as the Sun is now. It will consist entirely of degenerate carbon and oxygen, but will never reach temperatures hot enough to fuse these elements. Thus the white dwarf Sun will gradually cool, growing dimmer and dimmer. As the Sun dies, its gravitational pull on the orbiting bodies such as planets, comets and asteroids will weaken due to its
Gravitation of the Moon Gravitation of the Moon The acceleration due to gravity on the surface of the Moon is about 1.625 m/s, about 16.6% that on Earth's surface or 0.166 . Over the entire surface, the variation in gravitational acceleration is about 0.0253 m/s (1.6% of the acceleration due to gravity). Because weight is directly dependent upon gravitational acceleration, things on the Moon will weigh only 16.6% of what they weigh on the Earth. The gravitational field of the Moon has been measured by tracking the radio signals emitted by orbiting spacecraft. The principle used depends on the Doppler effect, whereby the line-of-sight