What are Some of the Effects of Microgravity?
Microgravity is the environment created during weightlessness, in which gravity has a negligible effect. Microgravity is obtained in one of three ways – going far enough from any planet or star’s gravity field, falling, or orbiting a celestial body — the same thing as falling but it never stops. A common misconception is that gravity disappears when in low earth orbit (LEO), like the International Space Station. This is not the case. LEO is not far away enough from the Earth’s surface to have decreased gravity – in fact, gravity there is similar to its intensity on the surface. The weightless effect is only caused because the objects on the space station and that space station are in constant free fall. One of the most famous effects of microgravity is that a flame becomes spherical. Plants grow towards the source of the light rather than in any specific direction. This same effect can be achieved on Earth to some extent but is even more obvious in microgravity. If objects are left alo
