How come asteroids don’t falls straight down, due to Earth’s gravity? They should be pulled through space straight towards Earth for millions of miles, right? But I see videos of them streaking across the sky horizontally.
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An object in motion tends to stay in motion (same speed and direction) unless acted upon by an outside force. So unless your asteroid was headed directly at Earth from either the front or the back of the Earth’s path or unless it is stationary and the Earth runs into it, then it is headed into the influence of Earth’s gravity at an angle. The asteroid’s momentum wants to keep it on its original path and the Earth’s gravity wants to pull it toward the Earth. Specifically the Earth’s center of gravity. This bends the path of the asteroid toward the Earth more and more as it gets closer since gravity is distance dependent but the angle won’t be pulled to 90 degrees in all probability.
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