What is the gravity pull of the earth on a asteroid?

Answer 1

Most asteroids are located in the asteroid belt, which is so far away from the Earth

that they do not experience any measurable gravitational pull from Earth. If an

asteroid approaches the Earth, however, then it will experience quite a substantial

gravitational pull. Asteroids can weigh thousands or even millions of tons.

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Answer #2:

There can never be any single answer to that question. Just like any other

object, of course, the gravitational force between the Earth and an asteroid

depends on the mass of the asteroid, and on how far it happens to be from

Earth at the moment.

Here is a sample, 'back-of-the-bar-napkin' calculation:

-- Assume that the asteroid has a mass that would weigh 1 million tons on Earth.

-- Assume that the asteroid is only 10,000 miles outside the orbit of Mars.

So, as the Earth and the asteroid both go round and round the sun in their

respective paths, the closest they can ever get to one another is about

33.9 million miles.

-- When the asteroid is on the surface of the Earth ... 3,959 miles from the center ...

it weighs 1 million tons. Its weight when it's 33.9 million miles away is just 1 million tons

times the square of the inverse ratio of those distances.

(1 million tons) x ( 3,959/33.9 million)2 = 18.35 tons

That's the Earth's pull on the asteroid, and the asteroid's pull on the Earth,

when they're as close together as they can ever be.

Mars, being so much closer, and Jupiter, being so much more massive than the

Earth, have that much greater gravitational interaction with the asteroid, and

potentially big effects on the shape of its orbit. The problem with that is that

they may nudge the asteroid into an orbit with a shape that could eventually

coincide with where the Earth is that day, and could wipe out the remaining

dinosaurs.