Without gravity, Earth would break up

• If gravity were not there, things would not attach to the Earth and fly off and away into space.
• People would be safer inside buildings because most structures are firmly grounded and would stay put even without gravity, at first.
• Anything else would float off - the Earth's atmosphere, its oceans, rivers, and lakes would be the first to drift away into space.
• Earth itself would most likely break apart into chunks and float off into space.

While physicists are convinced that we could never switch gravity off, we can still explore the idea.

Without gravity, our bodies would change. After a short visit to space, astronauts lose bone mass and muscle strength, and their sense of balance changes....