What would happen to the Earth if it was 100, 1000, 10000 miles closer or farther to the sun?

Answer 1

Since radiation drops as the square of the distance, the fractional change would be (10,000 / 93,000,000 )² = 0.0000000116 or 0.00000116 percent. Considering that the sun's radiation varies more than that, the difference would be negligible.

There would also be a negligible difference in the length of the year.

Answer 2

Not much. 10,000 miles out of 93,000,000 isn't much.
Because Earth orbits the Sun in an elliptical orbit and not a perfectly circular orbit, it actually gets more than 3,000,000 miles closer to the Sun every January and then then 3,000,000 farther way again every July. But January is winter you say? Yes, but only in the northern hemisphere. January is summer in the southern hemisphere. The tilt of the Earth axis causes the seasons and totally overwhelms the small difference in orbital distance. Even though that difference is over 3 million miles!

Answer 3

As far as Earth as a planetary body, it could be closer to the sun than Mercury or even farther away than Pluto and still be unchanged as a planet. Of course there would be no atmosphere or anything at all on its surface, but other than that it would be unchanged.

As a planet with life on its surface, that's a completely different story. For Earth to maintain its present ecosystem -- atmosphere, liquid water, life of all forms, etc.,. -- it must remain within what's called its habitable zone. For our type of sun, that habitable zone starts at around 75-million miles from the sun and ends at about 150-million miles from the sun. You can then see that being 100, 1,000 or 10,000 miles closer or farther from the sun still keeps us well within the habitable zone.

Answer 4

The Sun is so far away (93 million miles) that even 10,000 miles would have next to no measurable effect on the Earth. You need to get a better understanding of the scale of the solar system.

Answer 5

your assuming that the earth's orbit is perfect. the earths orbit varies by about 4 million miles. not even 4 million miles produces much difference, so 100, 1000, 10000, or even 100000 miles would do anything.

Answer 6

The Earth's orbit is already elliptical-------- so it moves closer and farther from the sun during the year.

With your numbers nothing happens.

Answer 7

Nothing

Answer 8

surprisingly little difference.

if you asked 10,000,000 mi... that would make a difference.