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Two astronauts are floating in gravitational free space after having lost contact with their spaceship. The two will

Asked in NEET 2017 · Mutual gravitation and binary systems

Answer: (1) move towards each other.

Step-by-step solution

In gravitational free space no external body acts on the pair, but they still act on each other.

Every pair of masses attracts with F=(Gm₁m₂)/(r²), which is always attractive.

That force, however small, accelerates each astronaut toward the other.

So the two will move towards each other, though extremely slowly given their small masses.

Why the other options are wrong

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