How do planets and moons stay within the rotation of their respective larger bodies, without being pulled in?
In: Physics
They are being constantly pulled by the larger body. However, they have a huge amount of tangential momentum keeping them from falling in. That is, they have a horizontal velocity high enough that, as their are pulled towards the other body, by the time they “fall,” the curvature of the large body has fallen away, so they just keep falling around it instead.
Better explained by the relevant xkcd: https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/
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