could an astroid hit mars and make it smash into earth then the earth smash into the sun?

Question

I asked my dad and he said it is possible but not likely cause the sun would burn up the planet if it got close to it. he said that the moon is closer to the sun and is like a million degrees that is why space men have special suits to wear when they go there.

Answer 1

No, despite what you read above, physics prevent this from happening. An asteroid would not have the mass to knock Mars out of its orbit. Such an object would have to be about a third the size of Mars.

But even if this were so, there would then be a catastrophic collision that would break Mars up into pieces. None of these pieces would then be big enough to knock earth out of her orbit.

Answer 2

An asteroid is smaller than a "dwarf planet", itself smaller than a planet.

In order to hit Mars hard enough to move it towards us, the asteroid would have to be more massive than a dwarf planet (therefore, it would not be an asteroid). Even though it is smaller than Earth, Mars is still a planet with lots of mass and a stable orbit around the Sun.

"The mass of all the asteroids in the Main Belt is estimated to be about 3 x 10^21 kg" (1)

This is like taking our Moon and cutting it up in 25 pieces. The total mass of all main belt asteroids would be the same as only one of the pieces.

Next, you have to grind this one piece up in almost 2 million pieces. That is how small an average asteroid is.

Mars has a mass that is almost 9 times that of the Moon, over 200 times that of all the asteroids taken together and half a billion times that of the average asteroid. (2)

So, even though as asteroid hitting Mars may case lots of damage, it could not move it very far off its orbit.

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The surface of the Sun is a little less than 6000 C (10,800 F). The surface of the Moon gets to a maximum of +120 C (250 F).
(3)

Answer 3

This could be possible under certain conditions, but it would take a very long time to happen. The asteroid could change the orbit of Mars such that it might eventually collide with Earth millions (or billions) of years later.

To knock Mars directly into the Earth would require an asteroid so huge that it would destroy Mars instantly on impact.

The chances of this happening are unbelievably small. In other words, It's not something you need to be concerned about.

Answer 4

He's probably right...also, the asteroid would hav e to be humungous and going really fast. Then again a mass traveling at that speed would probably disintigrate mars. Subsequently, pieces of mars could possibly hit earth, causing immense damage. In any case, I don't think the planets would just bounce off each other like billiard balls.

Answer 5

The more likely thing to happen would be that Mars would break into pieces after the collision that would fall into the earth and destroy all life and maybe the planet but it would never hit the sun.

Answer 6

I don't think there is an asteroid big enough to knock mars out of it's orbit. Then it would have to go on just the right path to hit earth. So I would have to say that is just about impossible.

Answer 7

The odds of that happening are too astomonical to calculate.
The sun is not a million degrees, as I'm sure some nice person will point out in one of these answers, but yes, I believe your father is right about anything getting close to it burning up.

Answer 8

Asteroids have hit all planets that we know of but the effects of the event results are always limited to the planet struck.

Answer 9

The asteroid would have to be HUGE, but the Earth would burn long before it would actually hit the sun.

Also, "space men have special suits to wear" because there's no oxygen in space, not because "the moon ... is like a million degrees." wtf

Answer 10

No.

An asteroid could not have the necessary energy to do this. It could not even come remotely close in fact.