What would happen if the planets distance from the sun changed what would happen?
2006-10-02 08:49:11 · 3 answers · asked by B 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Many things. The orbits would change, and the orbits of their respective moons would also change. This would have an effect on earths oceans and a variety of other things, possibly the speed of rotation, the length of a year, seasons etc.
One of the major reasons would be the gravitational pull of the sun on the planets could be affected
2006-10-02 08:58:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
that depends on if they were to move closer, or further, and if their velocities changed. my question to you is: what caused them to change?...
but in any case, the planets are all at a sort of equilibrium between their velocity's and distances from the sun. if any of those changed (again depends on how much) enough, they would either start spinning towards the sun or spiraling away in larger and larger orbits until they just spiraled off to space, no longer effected by the sun's gravitational pull.
on the other hand if they were to change less than a critical amount they would be in a state of imbalance for a while until they would return to equilibrium... the critical amount of change is determined by chaos theory.
2006-10-02 09:00:36 · answer #2 · answered by ^^orion^^ 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its orbital velocity would also have to change.
2006-10-02 08:52:15 · answer #3 · answered by bruinfan 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋