If mercury or venus was destroyed would we move closer to the sun or stay in our orbital path?

Question

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Answer 1

This of it this way: If you were driving down the street and the car next to you were blown up, would you be pulled over into their lane? Probably not.

Two balanced forces keep a planet in its orbit - inertia and gravitic force. Unless something affects one of these, either by applying a new force to the Earth and altering its inertial vector, or by changing the gravitational force of the Sun (by blowing a chunk off of it, perhaps), then Earth will just keep plowing along in its regular orbit.

Although the presence of Venus and Mercury cause perturbations in Earth's orbit, neither has any significant effect on the whole scheme.

Answer 2

I'm assuming you're asking if some how Mercury and Venus just "disappeared" would we move closer to the Sun (as someone pointed out, chances are if Mercury and Venus were destroyed Earth would be in trouble too).

So if that's what you're asking, then we would definitely NOT move closer to the Sun. We'd probably just stay right where we are for the most part since the mass of the Sun is so much bigger than the mass of either planet.

But there would probably be a very small (measurable, but tiny) effect. Since there would be slightly less mass within our orbit, our orbit might widen by just a little bit. I do not know how much of an effect it would have, but I doubt we would even notice (the astronomers would). It would be just a little perturbation in our orbit.

But, as you can see, we would definitely not move closer.

Answer 3

Our orbit would not change in any significant way. If you destroy a planet, where does the material go? If you had an explosive that could "blow up" a planet, the material would fly off in all directions, and then assume orbits around the Sun. Some would fall into the Sun, some might escape the solar system, but most would fly off in orbits that would create a lot of debris for many years to come.

We would have a lot of impacts in a few years, and for a long time afterwards, but our orbit would remain stable enough that it would make no difference.

Answer 4

It would depend on what Mercury or Venus was destroyed by.

The amount of energy needed to destroy a planet or move it from it's orbit is enormous to the point of mind-boggling.

It would take an event of monumental proportions so if Mercury or Venus were targetted by such a force, it's very well conceivable that Earth would be destroyed right along with it.

Answer 5

I do not think that we would move closer to the Sun. But, if Mercury or Venus did explode and a piece or pieces could hit us, depending when it happened, we could have a chance of getting moved from our orbit. But, we would most likely move away from the Sun, for they are closer to the Sun than us or the pieces could make their own orbit. But that is just my view.

Answer 6

Since there would be less mass in the direction of the sun, there would be less gravity. With a lower amount of gravity in the direction of the sun our current orbital speed would push us into an orbit farther away from the sun.