Why does the gravitational attraction between the Sun and Mercury vary? Would it vary if the orbit of Mercury were perfectly circular?
The gravitational force of attraction between sun and mercury is high.but mercury does not 24 attracted towards the sun.the force of attraction between mercury and sun is about1.35 × 10 . This is because the force attraction between the sun and mercury is not so much whole mercury would attracted by sun and they will collide with each other.there also some other forces from other planets in opposite direction would help to not collide with sun.the mercury would revolve around sun is due to gravitational force between them.because of all above reason the gravitational attraction will vary. For any specific combination of the height above the center of gravity and mass of planet,there is one specific velocity that produces a circular orbit.as that specific velocity is increased beyond this,elliptical orbits are produced.because of this reason it vary if the orbit of Mercury were perfectly circular.
