Pick a Solar System body or enter any mass and radius to find the speed needed to escape its gravity. Add an altitude to start from orbit, and compare the result with circular orbital speed and surface gravity.
| Body | Escape velocity | Surface gravity | vs Earth |
|---|
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See why the Moon is easy to leave and Jupiter is not.
Escape speed drops with altitude.
Try exoplanets, asteroids or neutron stars.
Escape velocity is the speed an object needs, with no further thrust, so that its kinetic energy equals the gravitational energy holding it. Below that speed it eventually falls back or stays in orbit; at or above it, it never returns.
Rockets do not actually reach escape velocity at the surface. They climb steadily and burn their engines for minutes, but the escape speed still sets the total energy that must be supplied.
11.19 km/s from the surface.
2.38 km/s, why lunar launches are easier.
617.7 km/s from its surface.
v = sqrt(2GM / r), where G = 6.674 x 10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 s^-2, M is the mass of the body in kg and r is the distance from its centre in metres.
About 11.19 km/s (40,270 km/h or 25,020 mph) from the surface, ignoring air resistance and Earth’s rotation.
No. The mass of the escaping object cancels out, so a pebble and a spacecraft need the same speed.
Escape velocity is sqrt(2), about 1.414, times the circular orbital velocity at the same distance.
The radius at which escape velocity would equal the speed of light: rs = 2GM / c^2. Squeeze Earth inside about 9 mm and it would become a black hole.
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