An Animation of the Velocities Required For Rockets to Escape the Gravitational Pull of Solar System Bodies

Dr. James O’Donoghue, a Planetary Astronomer at JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), who previously created a brilliant animation regarding rotational speed and axial tilts of each planet and demonstrated the gravitational pull of each planet, followed up with another fascinating animation that visualizes the velocities required by rockets to escape the gravitational pull of various bodies within our solar system. O’Donoghue used data from NASA to create this animation.

This animation shows a rocket launch exactly at the escape velocity of each pictured Solar System body, from the surface of each object up to 50 kilometers. This assumes no air resistance and includes gravity pulling down, although that’s a fairly negligible contribution.