Could the Earth ever stop spinning and still support life?

Question

I was thinking that maybe an asteroid larg enough could glance the side of the planet and cause its rotation to slow down until it eventually stopped. Any idea how people, if there were any would survive in either extreme: the really hot or the really cold?

Answer 1

In direct response to user "are u crazy", your user name is aptly chosen.
In NO way does the spin of a planet effect the gravitational forces exerted by the planet on other masses.

If the Earth stopped spinning, there would NOT be a significant increase in the experienced downward force exerted by the Earth. The Earth's gravity would stay the same, our weights would appear to increase ever-so-slightly, due to the fact that we are no longer experiencing centripetal acceleration, but this would be a negligible amount. People who live on the exact, geographic, North and South poles [albeit there aren't many of them] survive just fine (neglecting the cold).

If the Earth were to cease spinning, it would just be a matter of finding a good spot on the Earth to live. Since there would be no longer be a 24 hour day, one side would tend to cool off more while the other heated up due to the sun. But never the less, the Earth would likely still be suitable for life.

Answer 2

attention, people who've posted some crazy replies:

01. gravity makes us stay on the ground, not spin. spin does, too, but just to a little extent. gravity's dependent on the mass of our home planet and doesn't result due to spin, either.
02. the earth's spin is slowing down, infinitesmally. and the moon is moving farther away, too... inexorable facts of life when things are not in our control... yet.
03. life can still be supported even if the earth stops spinning, though in all probability, we'll all be long gone well before then. the sun would have swallowed us as it slowly expands, but don't worry, quite a few thousands of our descendants will still be safe. we'll probably evolve into extremophiles too, while we're at it. surviving at either very high or very cold temperatures will feel normal after a while.

and to answer the original question, yes, if you find an asteroid large enough to be able to stop all the kinetic energy that makes us turn around once each 24 hours. don't worry, most of the neas (near-earth asteroids) or phas (potentially-hazardous asteroids) have all been mapped. things that may still hit us (those that we don't know about yet) are in all probability too small to cause any significant change to the way the earth spins.

by the way, by the time the earth's rotation would've slowed down to result in extreme temperatures, we would have evolved to the extent that we probably wouldn't be called people! you never know...

Answer 3

First of all, gravity is not related to spin. Second, what is the frame of reference for spinning. If the earth was tidally locked with the sun it would still be spinning, with respect to the stars. If the earth was rotating just fast enough to appear locked to the stars, then a day would be a year long.

Venus is in a similar condition, with a day that is longer than its year. But the entire planet is hot because the thick atmosphere is able to transport heat from the day side to the night side. This could happen with earth to some degree, but the far night side would probably be still cold enough to be in a perpetual ice age.

An asteroid would probably not be able to change the earth's spin very much. Even a perfectly counter-rotation impact with Ceres 1, the largest asteroid, might not be able do it. In any event, a collision capable of changing the earth's rotation that drastically would kill all surface life. Only bacteria deep in the earth might survive.

Answer 4

Cool Question!

The Earth's spin has slowed down over the last several billion years. The moon is slowly robbing the Earth of angular momentum, and drifting farther away and taking longer to orbit as well.

Ancient marine shells indicate a twenty two day month, the rotation of the earth would be proportionately quicker.

There is no way to stop the Earth's spin without blowing it to pieces, which obviously would be a disaster for life.

If the Earth had never been spinning to begin with however, life would have had a very difficult time evolving out of the oceans.

The circulation of the atmosphere is driven by Earth's rotation and the Sun's heat.

If the Earth did not rotate, the daylit side would have a base temperature of +200 F and the night side would be -200F, just like our moon.

Even with an atmosphere to balance out the heat, the winds would be way scarrier than the Hurricanes we deal with now.

Also without the rotation of the Earth, we would have no protective magnetic field to protect life from solar radiation. The UV would fry everything.

Life would probably not live on land at all, or if it did, it would look nothing like what we have now.

Answer 5

No. Life would cease to exist on the Earth if is stopped spinning. If an asteroid that large hit the Earth there would be nothing left anyway.

Answer 6

i dont think that the earth could stop spinning. the earth is very large, and its inertia keeps it moving. if the earth continued to move around the sun, without the planet revolving, each side on teh world would still get sun, but only for part of the year. this would cause the plants, which rely on sunlight, to die. since plants are the beginning of the food chain, eventually, people would die.

Answer 7

It wont stop spinning. However if that process happened over million years then still it would support life. A different form of life could be evolved since the change is very slow.

Answer 8

I am sure the planet would still support life, however it is the spinning that gives us gravity and helps us to stay on the earth. The amount of spinning whether it is on its own axis or around another planet or star determins the amount of gravity.

Answer 9

the liveable areas of the a non-spinning earth-like planet would probably be near the dawn/sunset line

since it is not on one side and cold on the other, there is some region in the middle that is just right

Answer 10

The sheer amount of gravity involved in such an event would likely kill every living thing on the planet. Barring that, survival may be possible, but it would require drastic innovations in water supply and food production.