when the icebergs begins to melt, the mass at the equator will be more.. angular momentum= (moment of inertia * angular velocity).. moment of inertia= mass*radius^2.. So, when mass at the equator increases, the moment of inertia will decrease bcause the radius decreases exponentially... hence when the angular momentum is constant, the angular velocity increases due to the decrease of moment of inertia.. will that cause any changes in our earth's orbit?
2006-09-15 06:30:32 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Not very big changes in our earth's orbit, anyway...
2006-09-15 06:33:48 · answer #1 · answered by btsmith_y 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Strictly speaking, yes but very tiny. The Earth has two elements of angular momentum - axial from its spin, and orbital around the sun - and you are right that the total is constant, but the two separate elements are also almost constant because the only mechanism of exchange between them is a very very slow one.
The mechanism is that the Sun causes ocean tides, smaller than the Moon's, but also slightly off-centre because of tidal friction. The Sun's pull on these off-centre tidal bulges robs the Earth of a tiny amount of angular momentum around its axis, and converts it into angular momentum around its orbit (where more angular momentum means a larger orbit at the same speed).
You are also correct that the Earth will rotate slightly more slowly as polar ice turns into equatorial water. This will make the tidal bulges slightly less off-centre, but the melted ice will also make them slightly bigger, so the angular momentum exchange will be either slightly smaller or slightly bigger. This isn't going to be a tiny change, or even a tiny change to a tiny change. It'll be the difference between two tiny opposite changes to a tiny change. Now, that's really tiny!
2006-09-15 07:23:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No deviation to Earth's orbit, but to its rotation rate, yes. The Earth's orbit depends mostly on the Sun, and slightly on the total mass of the Earth, and it can be computed by assuming that all the mass of Earth is at the mathematical center of the planet, regardless of the shape of the real planet. But the daily rotation of the Earth on its axis would change slightly. Not enough to easily notice, but people like the U.S. Naval Observatory will be able to measure it.
2006-09-15 06:35:30 · answer #3 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No but I'd like to see what happens when the second nearest star Gliese 710 is in the Oort cloud 1.4 million years from now.
Otherwise when the Sun stops nuclear fusion (steady mass) everything will have different revolving periods and have deviated orbits.
2006-09-15 07:19:51 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not very sure, but I think that unless the gravitational pull on earth from the sun changes, the earth will stay in its orbit.
2006-09-15 06:40:12 · answer #5 · answered by everfair 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Rotation rate, not orbit but the orbit of the earth is changing anyway as it is getting farther from the sun. not much but it's documented
2006-09-15 06:42:03 · answer #6 · answered by Scott L 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
god created everything in a perfect manner
2006-09-15 06:59:56 · answer #7 · answered by monique... 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God made it a certain way and so it will stay.
2006-09-15 06:38:37 · answer #8 · answered by leilis4 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋