**Ask a monkey a physics question thread**

[OngBonga]

^I'm guessing we're close enough to the sun to be locked in its gravity.

So gravity stops space from expanding?

[MadMojoMonkey]

So gravity stops space from expanding?

Both play a role in the energy acting to accelerate an object over distance, but one is >>> than the other, so it is dominant.

Gravity doesn't hold atoms together, or atomic nuclei. The electromagnetic energy is much stronger than the gravitational energy acting on an atomic system. The strong force holding a nucleus is called such because it is strong (~137 times) enough to force equilibrium with the electromagnetic force over nuclear distances. Needless to say, gravity is so much less than this and it was negligible at the atomic level.

No, it doesn't stop the space from expanding, but the frame drag you would feel as an accelerating force from this minuscule amount of dark energy expressed over such a volume is practically 0.