2006-10-27 06:39:26 · 5 answers · asked by beyoncelver 1 in Environment
Most of the meteorites burn up in the atmosphere.
In reality, we are getting a little bit bigger all the time. But when the approximate mass of the Earth is about 6 x 10^24 kilograms, an annual addition of 10 tons (9071 kg = 9.1 x 10^3) is so small as to be completely negligible. It would take millions of years of meteorite accretion to make any noticable change in the size and mass of the Earth.
2006-10-27 06:46:54 · answer #1 · answered by Dave_Stark 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In fact, the impact of asteroids does add small amounts of mass to the earth. Its important however, to have a sense of the scale of these things. The radius of the earth is about 6,378 km. Thus, its volume is approximately 3.46 x 10^20 m^3. The volume of a meteorite that is even 1 m across (quite large) is only .167 m^3. Even if one of these had hit a day for the last 6 billion years, the earth's volume would only have changed by
1.76 x 10^-8 %, and this is probably a gross overestimate. Essentially, the earth is so much larger than these meteorites that the effect is not noticable.
2006-10-27 13:53:43 · answer #2 · answered by locke9k 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
b/c tens of tons is microscopic in proportion to the earth. Fill up your bath tub and than take an eye dropper and put a single drop in the water, will you see a physical change in the volume?
2006-10-27 13:46:31 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
We are, but only by small amounts... like tens of tons per year. When you get right down to it, that's not very much at all, on a planetary scale.
2006-10-27 13:45:10 · answer #4 · answered by metatron 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
we are a little but the meteorites make craters in the land so it just increases a little
2006-10-27 13:42:52 · answer #5 · answered by craftyboy 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋