What would happen if the earth stopped rotating, but continued to orbit the sun?

Question

Is that possible? What would happen to the climate and weather?

Answer 1

The atmosphere would freeze out on the dark side of the planet.

Even rotating once a year, the greenhouse effect would not be enough to prevent this. Even in Antarctica it can get cold enough for CO2 ice to form during its long dark night. As the CO2 is sucked out of the atmosphere it gets much colder quite quickly. The oceans on the day side would join the frozen air air since as the air pressure dropped, they would evaporate too and the water vapor would meet the same fate. The first cycle would probably take many years to occur due to residual heat in the crust and the amout of time it will take to freeze out most of the CO2 to get the ball rolling quickly.


Bits of the frozen atmosphere would thaw as it came into sunlight but diffusion would eventually carry anything that thawed to the cold side where it would precipitate out and stick. I suppose in equilibrium there would be some sort of VERY thin atmosphere, but not much. I could not tell you how slowly the Earth has to rotate for this to occur. Without ozone, mcuh of the water that evaporates will be photolyzed quite quickly and the hydrogen will mostly escape to space. So the water ice will be lost over time.

So, you would have a big old mountain of frozen water, nitrogen and oxygen, with less and less water each year on the dark side, and nitrogen/oxygen snows not far from the dayside terminator.

Things are much more stable if the earth is tidally locked to the sun. All the stuff falls on the night side and just stays there.

Answer 2

It's happening very slowly all the time. First the gravitational field on the Moon would weaken to the point where its orbit would decay; the Moon would collide with the Earth. If it were not game over by that point, than we would have weathered a lot of long days and a lot of long nights. If we blasted the Moon away, eventually days would become too long and too hot; nights, too long and too cold. We might try to ride a comfort zone between day and night while trying to grow things and keep things alive (to eat). Ultimately, nature would win if we didn't have our act together by then. The Earth's orbit would gradually decay and that would cause too much geological havoc. The end. But don't worry, it won't happen for a VERY long time.

Answer 3

properly before everything, what you're speaking approximately isn't an definitely stoppage of the Earth from rotating... it may be synchronous rotation - one revolution according to 300 and sixty 5 days. that's what the moon does - one revolution according to Earth orbit. As to what area could be dealing with the sunlight, that should be any area in any respect. The Earth is around, so there is not any area that should be certain the sunny spot if the Earth without warning switched to synchronous rotation. by utilising the way, you have to be attentive to something: the quantity of potential that should ought to be transfered to the Earth to reason this variety of drastic exchange in our planet's spin could be astronomical. Suffice it to declare the sole way it ought to ensue that i be attentive to of could be for a dwarf planet to hit the Earth with adequate rigidity to fantastically plenty harm each living ingredient on the face of the globe. There could be no surviving at fascinated by something greater beneficial than a microbe, not to point any people who can consume or drink.

Answer 4

It is not possible. Though Earth's rotation is slowing down, it is not adequate to completely stop it before the anticipated death of Earth (due to our Sun becoming a Red Giant).

If the Earth stopped rotating, it would be like planet Mercury, which always faces only one of its side to the Sun. Or, like our own moon, whose other side is never shown to Earth. The half of the Earth facing the Sun would become hot and the other side would have eternal night and would freeze.

Answer 5

Actually a day would equal half a year, as it takes one year to make a complete rotation around the sun.

It is also possible that the earth would orbit the sun so one side of the earth would be stuck in daylight, and one would be stuck in night. (As a ball on a string would orbit.)

Answer 6

If I had to guess, then the side of the earth that had sunlight, would probably dry up and kill every living thing. Imagine living in an environment over 100 degrees everyday of the year. The water supply would eventually run out. The other side of the world would probably freeze to death.

Answer 7

Los of rotation would cause the earths core to become unstable and most , if not all of the planet would become uninhabitable.
There would be more earthquakes...tectonic plate movemement, flooding and the loss of the magnetic feild that filters the ultra violet rays of the sun would cease and tempertures would rise to deadly levels....as well as radioactive atsmosphere.

I'm guessing.

Answer 8

Our days would be a year long. We would have to rotate once a year to keep the same side facing the sun.

Read below

Answer 9

i dont think tht this is possible
ne ways if this is going to happen then both day and nite will b six month long
the climatic would b drastic and will b quite difficult to survive

Answer 10

It's not possible, but if it were, a day would be the same length as a year.