Why don't we feel the pull from distant stars?

We don't feel the pull from distant stars due to the inverse square law of gravity and their immense distance from us.

Gravity is a force that acts between all masses in the universe and its strength decreases rapidly with distance. This is described by the inverse square law, which states that the force of gravity decreases with the square of the distance between the two objects. This means that if you double the distance between two objects, the gravitational force between them becomes four times weaker. If you triple the distance, the force becomes nine times weaker, and so on.

Stars are incredibly far away from us. Even the closest star to us, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.24 light years away, which is approximately 40 trillion kilometres. This immense distance means that the gravitational pull we feel from even the closest star is incredibly weak.

Furthermore, the mass of a star also plays a role in the strength of its gravitational pull. While stars are much more massive than the Earth, their mass is spread out over a much larger volume. This means that the density of a star, which is the mass per unit volume, is much lower than that of the Earth. This lower density means that the gravitational pull we feel from a star is much weaker than the pull we feel from the Earth.

In addition, the gravitational pull from a star is also counteracted by the gravitational pull from other celestial bodies closer to us, such as the Earth and the Sun. These bodies have a much stronger gravitational pull on us due to their proximity, which effectively cancels out the weak pull from distant stars.

In conclusion, while we are technically under the influence of the gravitational pull from all stars in the universe, the effect is so minuscule that it is virtually undetectable. The inverse square law of gravity, the immense distance to the stars, their lower density, and the stronger gravitational pull from closer bodies all contribute to this.