Eli5 How does terminal velocity work in lower gravity environments?

Question

I’m having some trouble wrapping my head around this concept. How does falling/reaching terminal velocity change depending on the force of gravity and atmosphere/drag. Example. Falling from the cliff on the Moon vs Earth or Mars vs. Earth.

In: 79

Answer 1

Terminal velocity is the maximum at which you can fall through a fluid (air, in the Earth’s case), regardless of gravity.

Since there’s no atmosphere on the Moon you would continue to accelerate until you landed on the surface.

Uranus has a tiny moon called Miranda, which has the tallest known cliff in the solar system at 20km high. Gravity is tiny (1/128 that of Earth) so it would take you 12 minutes to fall off it, but there’s no atmosphere, so no terminal velocity, and you accelerate all the way down.