Comment by bevr1337

14 hours ago

All mass has gravity

Had they said "the array will be so large it'll have its own gravity." then you'd be making a valid point.

But they didn't say just "gravity", they said "gravity well".

> "First, let us simply define what a gravity well is. A gravity well is a term used metaphorically to describe the gravitational pull that a large body exerts in space."

- https://medium.com/intuition/what-are-gravity-wells-3c1fb6d6...

So they weren't suggesting that it will be big enough to get past some boundary below which things don't have gravity, just that smaller things don't have enough gravity to matter.

  • Given all mass has gravity, and gravity can be metaphorically described by a well, all mass has a gravity well. It is not necessary for mass to capture other mass in its gravity. A well is a pleasant and relative metaphor humans can visualize - not a threshold reached after certain mass.

    "Large" is almost meaningless in this context. Douglas Adams put it best

    > Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.

    From an education site:

    > Everything with mass is able to bend space and the more massive an object is, the more it bends

    They start with an explanation of a marble compared to a bowling ball. Both have a gravity well, but one exerts far more influence

    https://www.howitworksdaily.com/the-solar-system-what-is-a-g...