would 2 stars very far away from each other have a strong gravitational pull
Yes, even if two stars are very far away from each other, they would still have a gravitational pull on each other. Gravity is a fundamental force of nature that acts between any two objects with mass, regardless of their distance apart.
To understand how the strength of the gravitational pull between two stars decreases with distance, you can use Newton's law of universal gravitation. The formula states that the gravitational force (F) between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses (m1 and m2) and inversely proportional to the square of the distance (r) between their centers:
F = G * (m1 * m2) / r^2
In this equation, G is the gravitational constant, which is a fixed value determined by experiments.
As the distance (r) between two stars increases, the gravitational force (F) between them decreases. The decrease follows the inverse square law, meaning that the force decreases four times when the distance is doubled (2^2 = 4), and nine times when the distance is tripled (3^2 = 9). Therefore, the gravitational pull between two stars diminishes rapidly as their separation increases.
However, it's important to note that while the gravitational force weakens with distance, stars that are very massive or close to each other can still exert a significant gravitational pull on each other, even if they are far apart. This is why galaxies and star clusters can maintain their structures despite the vast distances between individual stars.