The Human Effect on the Earths Orbit?

Question

Just curious:

But if we are pumping out the oil and gas, digging out the coal and burning them; heating and evaporating water; felling and burning trees and never replacing it. And at the same time anything that we do create (waste, houses) was already here in some form or another in its pre-existing raw form ... Then isnt the earth getting lighter, and wouldnt that be effecting its gravitational position?

Answer 1

Quite the opposite

The Earth gains mass each day as a result of incoming debris from space. You may have even seen evidence of this activity in the form of a 'falling star', or meteor, on a dark night.

While the actual amount of added material depends on which study you look at, an estimated 10 to the 8th power kilograms of in-falling matter accumulates every day. That seemingly large amount, however, IS insignificant compared to the Earth's total mass of almost 10 to the 25th power kilograms.

In other words, Earth adds an estimated one quadrillionth of one percent to its weight each day. I don't know of any counteracting mass LOSS mechanism of any consequence.

Answered by: Paul Walorski, B.A. Physics, Part-time Physics Instructor

Answer 2

There's something called the conservation of energy law which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change from one form to another, ie light to heat. So us burnging all these fossil fuels etc does not mean any mass is being lost, it doesnt just dissapear into nothingness, it is only being converted from one form to another through chemical reactions.

For example you drive your car down the road, it creates exhaust through internal combustion. Part of the gases released include carbon dioxide, this may be absorbed by a tree, the tree dies, gets buried, after a few thousand years it becomes coal and is dug up and burnt again, the cycle continues.

So regardless of matter falling from space, the earth does not lose mass through humans interaction with the environment by burning fossil fuels.

Answer 3

We are not (yet) doing anything that would have a measurable effect on Earth's orbit. We did use some of Earth's orbital energy for "slingshot" effects (giving kinetic energy to space probes we sent to the outer solar system), however, the mass of a probe, compared to Earth's mass, is negligible.

Over the last century, we have built many major dams for electricity. This raises the centre of gravity of large masses of water and may affect Earth's spin. Again, compared to Earth's mass, the change is very small but, in this case, could be measurable.

"the length of a day would have been reduced by 0.2 millionths of a second a day over the last 40 years" (from source)

Answer 4

Speaking in engineering terms....everything on the planet is in a control volume, which means that we account for everything entering and leaving, including mass and energy. No matter what happens inside the control volume "earth and atmosphere", the external forces are the same. The energy created from burning fuels is contained within the atmosphere, so there is no external effect on the orbit. Other writers mentioned debris from space, which is not a part of that control volume, so in fact, that does add mass to the equation. However, it is negligable compared to the mass of earth itself.

Answer 5

Nope, not at all ...
... because each day a couple of tons of debris, particles (interstellar dust) and similar are caught by the Earth gravity and fall on the Earth. Clearly soken, the Earth becomes heavier over time.
However, human beings do effect the Earth in plenty ways, but not the Earth's orbit.

Answer 6

Well, no. No matter is actually being lost from the earth. It's just being redistributed. What was in the earth, is now in the air and water. The mass of the earth is not changing.

What you're suggesting is possible if we send out large amounts of stuff into space, never to return.

Answer 7

Yes every thing matters I believe but No for the reasons mentioned in your question. For consuming fossil fuels, cutting/burning trees and water evaporation, there are various natural cycles and recycles working continuously and nothing can escape from earths atmosphere without force. So no reasons of earths lightness

Answer 8

i think this has something to do with the conservasion of energy and mass for example when we heat water until it evaporates the water is not gone totally but it is transformed into another form which is vapor and because it is warm it goes up with other water vapor forms cloulds which is after cooling down and becoming heavy will go back to earth in the form of rain its just a cycle you know the saying what comes from the earth goes back to earth so its not really getting ligther because god created a very good balance in nature and the earth cope up with its own unbalances (is my grammar correct)

Answer 9

No. The only mass we lose is when we launch into space. The atmosphere still forms part of the earth. We probably gain more in material from space. In the grand scale the amount of matter is probably insignificant.

Answer 10

No, the earth as a whole isn't getting lighter.

The water evaporates into the atmosphere, which is still a part of the earth.

The fumes from the oil/fuel we burn get released into the atmosphere, which is still a part of the earth.

Unless we physically take things out and dump them in outer space (which we have done, a bit with bits of spacecrafts and satelites but nowhere enough to make the slightest dent on the weight of the earth), we're not making the earth lighter.