Eli5: Saturn is made of gas, and lots of it. Why does the gas stays “connected” and doesn’t just float into space?

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Eli5: Saturn is made of gas, and lots of it. Why does the gas stays “connected” and doesn’t just float into space?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The same reason the rocks on Earth stay connected and don’t float into space. Gas has mass, and mass has gravity. A lot of mass together exerts a lot of gravity.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Answer:

Because it has a gravitational orbit that attracts things to its core.

Likewise we could ask why the oxygen or atmosphere on earth, a gas, doesn’t just float away.

It’s literally attracted to the planet.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It is not much different than earth if you think why air, dust and water stays connected. Matter pull each other and become a big mass and have gravity.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Gravity.

A gas giant is massive. Despite being made of mostly hydrogen, Saturn has ten times the mass of Earth. Gravitational pull is directly affected by the amount of mass an object has – the more mass, the more gravity has an effect.

The gravity for such a large object pulls it all towards a central point, forming a sphere. It’s the same process that forms other planets, rocky or gaseous.

The pressure from all of the gas in Saturn’s core may actually cause it to have a solid core.