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What does the gravitational constant G do in Newton’s law of gravitation?

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gravitational lens — gravity A galactic cluster, about five billion light-years away, produces a tremendous gravitational field that “bends” light around it. This lens produces multiple copies of a blue galaxy about twice as distant. Four images are visible in a circle surrounding the lens; a fifth is visible near the center of the picture, which was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

In Newton’s law of universal gravitation, the gravitational constant (G) serves as a proportionality constant that determines the strength of the attractive force between two objects.12

The relationship is expressed by the formula:
$F = G \frac{m_{1} m_{2}}{r^{2}}$

In this equation, G scales the product of the masses (m₁ and m₂) divided by the square of the distance between their centers (r²). Because G is a universal constant, its numerical value remains the same regardless of the objects involved, though its specific representation depends on the system of units being used. Beyond its role in this calculation, G is considered a fundamental geometric factor in general relativity, reflecting the intrinsic nature of gravity rather than the material properties of the objects themselves.12