Is the earth getting heavier?

Question

I read that debris, space dust and asteroids from outer space is constantly penetrating our atmosphere so does that mean our planet is getting heavier?

Or lighter? Because we are using up earth's stored fuels ie. gas, oil, coal.

Answer 1

As long as people like Rosie ODonnel still continue living on earth, than yes, the earth is getting heavier.

Answer 2

In this context, I assume that 'heavier' means more massive.

We (Earth, that is, not you and I) are gathering in more space dust, mini-comets and meteoroids than we are "leaking" out atmospheric gasses.

Even though we are "using up fuel", we are merely extracting their energy through chemical reactions, combining the fuel with oxygen.
For example, we combine the Carbon atoms of coal with the oxygen atoms of the air to form CO2. However, everything remains here on Earth (whether in the ground or in the atmosphere, it still counts as Earth's total mass).
Even the tiny bit of nergy that is released in this manner stays here as heat, which could be counted as mass if you really insisted (E = mc^2).

Even though this extra heat could escape to space as very long wavelength photons, the extra CO2 pumped in the air through the burning of coal (or any other carbon based fuel) does act as a barrier to the escape of heat.

As for space debris: if it comes from Earth and remains in orbit around Earth (it has not escaped to a solar orbit, for example), then on the grand scheme of things, it still counts as being Earth's mass.

When calculating the pull that the Sun has on our Earth-Moon system, keeping it in orbit around the Sun, it does not matter if the bits of mass are at Earth's centre, 25 feet below ground, on your coffee table, in the air, in Earth orbit, or even on the Moon.

However, the rovers on Mars have escaped Earth and are now counted as new mass on Mars; the Voyager probe have also escaped Earth and are escaping the solar system.
So their mass is lost. But that loss is extremely small when compared to the dust, minicomets and meteoroids we pick up all the time.

Answer 3

Any change is SOOOoooooo small as to be totally negligible and WAY to small to measure. There are a few tons of cosmic dust falling to Earth each year, but Earth weighs 5,972,230,000,000,000,000,000 tons, so that is nothing. Also, a few tons of air escape to space every year, so there is a loss that way. But using up stored fuels makes NO CHANGE at all, because the fuel is just combined with oxygen to make an equal weight of CO2 and ash and smoke which stays on Earth.

Answer 4

The Earth gains several tons of mass every day by accumulating debris from space...
Time to go on a diet?

Answer 5

YES!!
our earth is getting heavier because of the expanding population-we've got about 6.5 billion ppl and thats a four billion increase from 50 years ago
the earth has definately grown heavier since the last 100 years

Answer 6

Yes, it does get heavier. But the right term to use here would be "massive" not heavier.

Answer 7

:)) funny..
everything on earth is conserved...and not consumed, according to Einstein.. so we have to take in consideration only the materials that enter and go outside earth and it;s atmosphere

Answer 8

weight is all relative, maybe the mass is growing though, i dont know its been way to long...i probably sound like an idiot haha

Answer 9

earth does not have weight only mass

Answer 10

only in the western hemisphere