Posted by Skywise on January 25, 2013 at 03:22:19:
The change from prograde to retrograde motion (or reverse) is an optical illusion. Gravity does not change direction just because of this change in apparent motion. Not that it matters anyway. The amount of gravitational pull on the Earth from any of the planets is small, like a flea jumping on an elephant. But I will see if I can come up with some hard numbers, maybe an animation for you. It will take time. Brian
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