What would it take for the earth to 'fly' out of it's orbit around the sun?

Question

could a massive explosion, or a large meteor etc. push the earth out of it's orbit and send it hurtling into the outer reaches of space, or into the sun? Or would the earth simply find another stable orbit?

Answer 1

In order for the Earth to leave the orbit of the Sun it would have to reach escape velocity at its current orbital distance.

escape velocity is found by the following eqn.

v = sqrt(2*mu/r)

where mu = G*M (mass of the central body)
and r = distance from the center of that mass.

mu(Sun) = 132,712,440,018 km^3/s^2
r(Sun to Earth) = 1 AU = 149,597,870.691 km

so the Earth would have to reach a speed of at least...

v = sqrt(2*mu/r) = 42.12 km/s!

Compare that to its current approximate orbital tangential velocity...

v(earth referenced to Sun) = 29.78 km/s...

The Earth would have to gain a speed of...

deltaV = v(escape) - v(earth) = 12.34 km/s!

To give you an idea of how fast that is...

Mach 1 = about 300 m/s = .3 km/s
Fastest any man-made craft has ever gone = ~10 km/s


To answer your question, something as massive as the Earth would have to hit it at about 12 km/s or more (depending on how much more or less massive it is) in a perfectly elastic collision... meaning none of its mass is transferred to the Earth, and that it transfers all of its momentum to it...

In a word, impossible.

Answer 2

In a very true sense, our Earth is flying out of its orbit even as we write. Centripetal force wants to throw our planet out into deep space (where the Enterprise roams); only gravity from our sun keeps that from happening.

Shortly after our moon was formed by Earth colliding with a large astral body, the moon was only a few tens of thousands of miles from the Earth. Now it is over 230 thousand miles away. It was flying out of its original orbit. It stopped that flying only when the Earth's gravity attraction equaled the centripetal force from the moon's velocity.

Two things can drastically change Earth's orbit: a change in gravitational attraction by the sun or a change in centripetal force on the Earth. In all likelihood the sun's gravitational pull will remain the same over our lifetime (and about 100,000 generations or more thereafter). So the only real threat is a change in centripetal force.

As some of the other answerers have said, a change in Earth's centripetal force would probably come from an event that would destroy the Earth and/or all life on it anyway. Probably the most likely Armageddon event would be for the Earth to collide with a large astral body...like a huge space rock or a comet.

Like a cue ball hitting the eight ball, the momentum of the cue ball (the space rock) would be transferred in direction to the eight ball (the Earth). But to cause the eight ball to move, the cue ball has to have a mass (m) and/or a velocity (v) sufficient to move the eight ball mass (M) and/or velocity (V). If the two bodies met head on, they both would come to a standstill if and only if their two momentums cancelled out. That is MV - mv = 0 In which case, the combined bodies would be pulled into the sun because centrepital force would be zero since there would be no velocity.

If the space rock rear ended Earth, the two momentums would be additive so that MV + mv = (M + m)vel; where vel would be the resulting velocity of the two bodies moving off together. If vel is sufficiently large, it will exceed the escape velocity of the sun and shoot off into deep space. (By the way, 26,000 mph is not the escape velocity of the sun; that's the escape velocity of the Earth.) If not, a new equilibrium point will be found where the combined bodies will go into orbit around the sun. A collision somewhere between head on and a rear ender, would result in velocities somewhere between zero and vel if the momentums would have otherwise cancelled out.

I think it is clear that, if the Earth falls into the sun, seeks out a new orbit, or flies off into deep space, whatever caused that adjustment would eliminate the Earth as we know it.

Answer 3

The large metoer would definatly hurt the earth badly, and surely will send the earth flying away. An explosion would be impossible, as the sun cant possibly obtain the size and mass to undergo a supernova (All it will do is become a red giant and shrink back down. However, The earth would probibly, if knocked out of orbit, find itself orbiting another star, or become a moon to a hot jupitur!

Answer 4

ok at the initiating, Horatio is a finished dope. If he imagine's that gravity is a theory then tell him to bypass bounce out a window and word what occurs. If he lands on the roof, then per chance he's on to something. Gravity is likewise the stress that keeps earth in orbit around the solar as well as the different planets, asteroids and comets in our image voltaic device. you're best that count number and ability couldn't have "advanced" with the aid of the undeniable fact that word is in straightforward words utilized to existence sorts, no longer inatimate gadgets. so a options because the position the count number originated from, it replaced into all a fabricated from the large Bang. What got here in the previous's nonetheless theory. do not let any of the religious human beings attempt to persuade you to ignore your psychological interest with the help of merely chalking all of it as a lot as being the artwork of God because those all and distinctive seems merely as clueless as something else persons. per chance even more effective so becuase they turn a blind eye in the route of common sense and reason. now to not prepare merely how boastful it truly is to imagine that your one certain God made the total universe. What about the different distinct faiths contained in the international (some older than Christianity) who would not trust the Christian view of issues? the point is that we do not recognize yet we could continuously keep an open recommendations so as that we are able to learn.

Answer 5

the equation that describes the force needed is the fundamental Newtonian force equation

f=ma

or rearranged, a=f/m

ANY force at all will accelerate the earth some, but not much because the m in the equation is the mass of the earth, and the acceleration is equal to the force applied, divided by this giant mass

however, even a small force, exerted over a long time, would significantly change the orbit of the earth

most cataclysmic explosive type forces large enough to affect the earth's orbit significantly, would completely destroy life on earth and possibly fragment the earth



so,

Answer 6

To take the earth completely out of solar orbit would require increasing its velocity by over 27,000 mph, and since the earth weighs about six sextillion tons, that would be a big whack indeed. Any velocity change less than that would simply put the earth into a different orbit.

Answer 7

actully it is happening, earth ( or is it the moon) is moving away at a rate of about 1 inch per year. So its no big difference. Another possiblity is that the some of the gases in the sun will start burning out and the sun will loose its mass, and so its gravitational pull will be affected and thus making earth move further away

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Answer 8

Absolutely anything can do it. Every piece of matter in the universe is causing the earth to 'fly'out of its orbit around the sun. Of course, it's very insignificant. The earth is already increasing its orbit by an inch or so per year.

Answer 9

Maybe if another star sized object came through our solar system then the gravitational pull could ripe the Earth right out of its orbit. No contact would be necessary.

Answer 10

Some catastrophic event. Perhaps one of your theories. My guess is that if any of those happened, Earth would not reach the sun in one piece. Even if it did, the gravitational forces of the sun would rip the planet apart before actually impacting the solar surface. One thing is certain in either event, we would all be dead before we could witness its entirety.