If the earth was 9,000,000 miles further away from the sun what would that do to the temperature on earth?

Answer 1

The Earth varies in its orbit naturally by about 3 million miles, with perihelion (i.e., the closest point) coming during summer in the southern hemisphere (e.g., Australia).

The equation you want is called the Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law:

T = { 34.4187 K } ( L / R^2 )^(1/4)

where L = luminous power in Watts
where R = distance from source in meters
where T = the subsolar temperature

The equilibrium blackbody temperature is the subsolar temperature divided by the square root of two.

For this problem:
L = 3.826E+26 Watts
R1 = 1.496E+11 meters
R2 = 1.641E+11 meters
Thus...
T1 subsolar = 393.6 K
T1 equilibrium = 278.3 K
T2 subsolar = 375.8 K
T2 equilibrium = 265.8 K

In other words, Earth would cool down by 12.5 degrees Kelvin (or Celsius, same difference).

Answer 2

A lot of people are guessing at how cold it would be but with a little science, you can figure it out.

The average temperature of Earth is determined primarily by how much heat we receive from the Sun and radiate back out into space.

The amount of heat received or radiated is determined by how much area (in square degrees) the other body (the Sun for receiving heat from and the sky for radiating heat to) covers, and by how hot the bodies are. The amount of heat transfer is proportional to the area and to the fourth power of body absolute temperature.

If the Sun were 9,000,0000 miles farther away, it would be 10% smaller in the sky and thus cover 20% less area so we would receive 20% less heat (more precisely it's 83%). The Earth has an average temperature (T0) around 300 K (that's absolute temperature - needed for this calculation). The heat (Q) radiated by the Earth is proportional to the absolute temperature to the 4th power:

Q = k*T0^4

Rearranging:

Q/k = T0^4

With the Sun farther away, giving only 0.83 times as much heat, the new temperature(T1) follows the relation:

0.83 * Q = k T1^4

From above: Q/k = T0^4 so:

0.83 * T0^4 = T1^4

Since T0 is 300 K, T1 is 0.83^(1/4) * 300 K = 286 K

The average temperature on Earth would be 14 C (1 degree C = 1 degree K) or 25 F cooler

That's quite a bit. We would have an ice age over North America, Europe and Asia. Earth would still be habitable, but where high temperatures reach 100F now, it would be 75F. The tropics would become comfortable and the temperate zones would be very cold. Where I live in New Mexico, we would have 5 months of the year below freezing, much like the Canadian plains today.

In short, make sure you dress warm.

Answer 3

Light and infrared intensity (power) which are involved, diminish with the square of the distance form the source (the sun).
Mars is about 3 times that distance further away (about 26 Million miles) and you can read the temperature there. Just extrapolate between our and Mars' temp.

Answer 4

Right now the earth is approximately 91,000,000 miles away from the sun.

Another 9 million miles, the temp would PLUMMET..dunno if anything beyond unicellular organisms would be able to survive

Answer 5

Oh, please.... the folks here saying moving the Earth to 1.1 AU would be catastrophic are way off. Read sparky's link, it's pretty good. Also, jenab6 and Pretzels have good analyses, suggesting the temperature would drop 20 or 25 degrees Fahrenheit - cooler but not bitterly cold.

Answer 6

see link

Answer 7

change weather quite a bit, probably all the oceans probably wont freeze, but they will get significantly colder, and dramatically change the weather on the globe. People, in millions, would no doubt die.

Answer 8

it would be much cooler because we would be farther away from our heat source. Just think about sitting in front of a heater or fire place. If you get up and move away don't you get cooler?

Answer 9

we'd freeze and die, the farther the planets are away from the sun, the colder it is

Answer 10

The temprature would decrease and life would not be able to survive.