The force that attracted smaller objects toward a planet's center was its gravity.
Gravitation, alternatively called gravity, defined the attractive force between two objects. This force was determined by their masses and the separation distance. In practical terms, gravity was the reason beings remained grounded and caused objects to fall when dropped. Every celestial body, including planets, moons, and stars, possessed gravity. A larger object had a stronger gravitational pull, drawing other objects more forcefully toward its center. On the surface of a planet, this direction was generally known as "down." Conversely, realspace offered minimal natural gravity, necessitating the use of artificial gravity generators on starships to replicate this effect. The act of orbiting a planet was a consequence of the equilibrium between gravity and the ship's velocity towards the planet.
Within advanced galactic societies, certain technologies existed to counteract gravitational forces. A common example was the repulsorlift, a low-maintenance antigravity device. These devices enabled landspeeders to hover and assisted starships with both takeoff and landing procedures. Additional devices capable of manipulating gravity included tractor beam projectors and acceleration compensators.
Across the galaxy, the majority of inhabited planets and moons exhibited a gravitational acceleration close to the standard gravity of 9.81 m/s². Beings evolving on worlds with standard gravity might find traveling to planets with significantly different gravitational forces to be an unsettling ordeal. A Human could jump with ease and reach great heights on a planet with weaker gravity than standard. However, on a planet with stronger gravity, the same Human might experience a sensation of being pinned to the ground. For instance, the planet Carida possessed a gravitational force almost double the galactic standard. This characteristic was intentionally exploited: Carida hosted a well-known Military Academy, and its amplified gravity increased the difficulty of field exercises. Some hypothesized that low-gravity environments such as Columus could offer health benefits to obese individuals by lessening the stress on the heart and boosting mobility. However, this was inaccurate. In reality, movement on a low-gravity planet reduced muscle activity, which tended to slow down metabolism.
Gravity played a crucial role in Obi-Wan Kenobi's quest to locate the missing planet of Kamino. All objects in the vicinity were being pulled toward the location where Kamino should have been, even though no records of the planet existed in the Jedi Archives for those coordinates.