My understanding is that potentially all stars have planets orbiting around them. When the gravitational pull of the star is gone, what happens to the planets?
2007-11-02 04:17:00 · 12 answers · asked by cowburns@verizon.net 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
A shooting star is not a star. It is a tiny piece of dust, less than the size of a grain of sand, burning up in the upper atmosphere. These specks of dust come from comet trails, asteroid imapcts, etc and the solar system is littered with them. When they encounter Earth's atmosphere their high speed causes great friction and heat, leading to them burning up in a spectacular bright streak across the sky.
So nothing happens to the planet, because there never were any planets around it in the first place.
2007-11-02 04:20:46 · answer #1 · answered by Jason T 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Hypothetically, to answer your question, if the gravitational pull of a star were to suddenly disappear, the planets orbiting it would fly off in straight line trajectories. It's not instantaneous though. The closest planets would be the first to cease their orbit, followed by those further away, until eventually all are travelling in straight line trajectories.
Think of the change in gravity as a single huge wave rippling out from the centre of the star, removing any gravitational pull on planets as it passes them at the speed of light.
2007-11-02 04:33:57 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
OMG. Another question that makes me wan't to curse the nations schools.
1. shooting stars are small hunks of rock, usually less than a couple of pounds that burn up when they encounter the atmosphere.
2. You are correct: most starts probably have planets.
3. stars do not lose gravitational pull. A star might use all its fuel and enter the white dwarf stage, but gravity is a function of mass. The white dwarf still has most of its earlier mass. The inner planets of a star entering its red giant stage could be swallowed by the star. others will just get seriously roasted. Outer planets will either be unaffected or perhaps lose a little of their atmospheres. But their orbits will largely be uneffected.
2007-11-02 04:45:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
A shooting star is not a real star. It just looks like a star from to people standing on the earth. It is anything from a grain of sand to a huge boulder that hits the atmosphere and burns up making a bright streak in the air.
2007-11-02 04:21:58 · answer #4 · answered by eric l 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is basically a bit of space debris - probably about the size of a grain of sand - that enters our atmosphere. It glows from the friction of it's intense speed & it's path through the air. It's not truly a 'star' at all.
2007-11-02 04:37:30 · answer #5 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"shooting stars" are not really starts but meteors. Most often they are less then a foot in diameter and what you see is them burning up in the atmosphere because of increased friction
2007-11-02 04:22:52 · answer #6 · answered by Kimball K 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A shooting star is not a star at all - it is a meteor (a bit of rock, dust or ice) that is burning up in our atmosphere.
2007-11-02 04:20:17 · answer #7 · answered by the_lipsiot 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Its not a star, its a metor, When stars do go nova, it changes allot around its orbit, kicking out huge gamma rays.
2007-11-02 04:25:37 · answer #8 · answered by krennao 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
COWABUNGA!
no, seriously... two different things here, shooting stars are meteors (or Robert Blake, etc) and stars are... suns.
Suns don't ever become meteors.
Whatever became of Robert Blake?
2007-11-02 04:58:04 · answer #9 · answered by Faesson 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a shooting star is not a real star it is a metorite that has entered earths atmosphere
2007-11-02 04:21:07 · answer #10 · answered by kathy v 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋