ELI5, Is there a sense of direction and space?

Question

Like if you were to leave Earth’s atmosphere and “float” next to it would you see the “floor” of space? Is it darkness? Would you see the stars down too.

How can you get oriented to direction? What’s north, south, east west?

In: 0

Answer 1

Depends upon your reference point. If you are referencing the earth, you have spinward and antispinward directions. Height above earth’s surface. “North” is above the orbital plane of the planets, or the sun’s north pole, etc.

Same for the sun, moon or even the galaxy center.

Sci-fi writers refer to gravity wells for “up” and “down”. Climbing out of planet’s gravity could be “up” and depending to the surface could be “down”.

Remember, in Ender’s game, the enemy’s gate is always down.