What if gravity wasn’t so weak?

Let’s imagine a universe where gravity is slightly stronger than it is now. For instance, a universe where gravity is ‘only’ 10³⁰ rather than 10³⁶ weaker than the electric forces.

Atoms and molecules would behave almost the same way, but objects would not need to become that large before gravity becomes competitive with other forces.

The number of atoms needed to form a star would be a billion times smaller. Galaxy formation would be faster, and they would end up being much smaller than ours, with densely packed stars and frequent close encounters between them.

This in itself would preclude stable planetary systems, because the orbits would be disturbed by passing stars, which is unlikely to happen in our galaxies.

The masses of planets would also be reduced by a billion. Regardless of whether these planets could maintain stable orbits, the force of gravity would limit the potential development of life on them.

In an imaginary world with such a strong gravity, even insects would need thick legs to support themselves and elephant-like proportions, and no animal or plant could grow much larger without being crushed by gravity.

In addition to the possibly unstable orbits of planets and the limited complexity and size that organisms can achieve, an additional…