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6 answers

Heavier.  Matter keeps falling to earth (mostly from meteoroids), and it accumulates.  Earth loses a bit of atmosphere but that's a slow process.

Here's an extreme example:  Our best projection of the formation of the Moon is that it came from the impact of a Mars-sized body into the proto-Earth.  Most of its mass wound up as part of Earth, so the very early Earth got about 10% heavier in just a few hours!

2007-08-07 17:33:06 · answer #1 · answered by Engineer-Poet 7 · 1 0

To answer this question you have to compare all possible ways that the planet can gain or lose mass.
The earth is hit by meteorites every day.so we gain mass there.
To lose mass we send it into space, but only the mass that escapes from orbit really leaves. An object in orbit would still be part of our cumulative mass.
Anything that grows on the earth is neither additive or subtractive from the overall mass.
We are also hit with Solar Wind which probably adds a small amount of mass.
The vacuum surrounding earth is probably in equilibrium with gravity relative to the atmosphere. So probably no gain or loss there.
Since we get hit daily with meteorites I think we probably are slowly gaining mass.

2007-08-07 17:46:32 · answer #2 · answered by zydecojudd 3 · 1 0

Too many unknowns. The earth does gain mass from the numerous micrometeoroids that strike the atmosphere over eons of earth's history. However, one theory is that the moon developed from earth being struck by a massive meteorite - which I'm guessing would more than negate the gains from micrometeoroids.

2007-08-07 18:42:39 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

It is difficult to define "conception" for the earth. However, it appears that considerable material has been deposited on the earth since it became a substainable mass as a planet, so I would vote for heavier.

2007-08-07 17:35:04 · answer #4 · answered by cattbarf 7 · 0 1

Heavier because of population. Everything else, buildings, cars, etc. came out of the earth. 6 billion people adds some weight. But not a lot. Not from the point of view of the planet.

2007-08-07 17:38:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 2

Earth's mass increases by about 40,000 metric tons per year, most of it coming from infalling material like meteors and cometary dust.

2007-08-07 17:57:25 · answer #6 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0 0

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