Moving the earth

[Nick R]

As we know the sun will eventually get hotter and in effect melt the earth ,

Is is , or will it ever be possible to move the earths orbit ? to protect it from this happening ?

Probably a dumb question but 1 i thought i would of ask

[roboticsound]

Well technically it would be possible, in fact I'm pretty sure some (french?) scientists have already designed a possible way of doing it but it would take many, many years and is outside of our current technology.

If i remember correctly the idea involves moving an object such as a large asteroid to just in front of the earth so that its gravitational pull speeds up the earths orbit causing it to move into an larger one.

I'm not quite sure if I got all the details right but this is more or less the idea. I imagine though apart from the logistical problems, the idea of moving a large asteroid so close to earth could end in catastrophe.

Anyway we've got a few billion years before we need to worry about it...hopefully we will have left the earth by then

[Nick R]

iam not worried about it .lol

but would the object have to be as big as the earth ie another planet or would something smaller move it of its orbit in a collision

[JamesF]

No. What will happen is that the entire human race will leave the planet well before it is consumed by the sun in a number of huge space-going "arks". For reasons that will become obvious later, the "B" ark will leave first.

James

[roboticsound]

No the object doesn't need to be all that big but the smaller it is the longer it would take. Also, the distance that the object is held in front the earth also has an effect.

Anyway I'm no expert but I've heard about this a couple of times.

[roboticsound]

the "B" ark will leave first.

[Nick R]

would that be the Golgafrincham

[Stephen]

Give me a lever long enough ......

One point that has been avoided though is what's the point of moving the Earth in the first place? IIRC once the red giant phase is over, the Sun contracts into a piddly little white dwarf doesn't it? Do they radiate enough heat to support a planet?

[oldfruit]

Because the Sun throws of vast amounts of matter on a daily basis, would it not then mean that over thousands or millions of years the mass of the Sun would decrease slightly, and would this not mean that due to having a lower mass the Suns gravity may also decrease? So would this gradually change the orbit of Earth and the other planets?

[Nick R]

Give me a lever long enough ......

One point that has been avoided though is what's the point of moving the Earth in the first place? IIRC once the red giant phase is over, the Sun contracts into a piddly little white dwarf doesn't it? Do they radiate enough heat to support a planet?

does /will it not produce more heat the smaller it gets

[Stephen]

does /will it not produce more heat the smaller it gets

I don't think so. (Working from dodgy memory here ....)

Once the red giant phase ends, the fuel (starting from Hydrogen and fusing all the way up to Carbon but not Neon or any further) in the Sun has all been used up. The Sun's not producing fusion any more. It's simply radiating out the heat it stored up in the red giant phase.

From there on in, the white dwarf cools down until it's a black dwarf and we all get rich on mining the diamonds out of it

[Nick R]

.

From there on in, the white dwarf cools down until it's a black dwarf and we all get rich on mining the diamonds out of it

Look forward to it lol

[Stephen]

Look forward to it lol

You and my Great x 10 ^ 999999999999 (insert random number of 9s here) Grand Children

[Nick R]

You and my Great x 10 ^ 999999999999 (insert random number of 9s here) Grand Children

can i stake a claim now ,just in case i have any of my x grandchildren about ? just thinking about their future:)

I suppose in the end, it will create a vacuum in space that will draw back the all the energy expelled from it, thus creating a black hole with a dead star in the middle ?

[Stephen]

can i stake a claim now ,just in case i have any of my x grandchildren about ? just thinking about their future:)

I suppose in the end, it will create a vacuum in space that will draw back the all the energy expelled from it, thus creating a black hole with a dead star in the middle ?

As cool as that would be, the Sun would need to be about 20 times bigger to end up as a black hole. Nope, our Sun is just destined to become an Earth size ball of cold lifeless Carbon.

[Nick R]

As cool as that would be, the Sun would need to be about 20 times bigger to end up as a black hole. Nope, our Sun is just destined to become an Earth size ball of cold lifeless Carbon.

Thats that theory snookered then lol

[MarySkater]

If we terraformed Mars and the outer planets' moons, we could leave Earth where it is when the sun expanded, and just migrate out to where the climate was better. Then move back in to Venus and Mercury as the sun was shrinking. (Assuming the rocky planets would be left, and not completely evaporated.)

[r.t.swing]

:cool:The way civilization seem to be going and considering the state of the world today, there may be no point in moving anything.

[kris h]

Scary thought that our star that created our

amazing planet will destroy it one day

[Photosbykev]

We will have destroyed earth long before any natural event destroys it

[Gerontius]

Estate agents in the B ark

[geordieskies]

I'm not going to lose any sleep over this one :-)

[Nick R]

I don't think so. (Working from dodgy memory here ....)

Once the red giant phase ends, the fuel (starting from Hydrogen and fusing all the way up to Carbon but not Neon or any further) in the Sun has all been used up. The Sun's not producing fusion any more. It's simply radiating out the heat it stored up in the red giant phase.

From there on in, the white dwarf cools down until it's a black dwarf and we all get rich on mining the diamonds out of it

Heigh Ho

Heigh Ho

[Macavity]

Quite an interesting article on Solar evolution and earth's potential future.

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/press_office/media/media191.pdf

Clearly the "other effects" are significant, but the future doesn't look bright?

Or rather looks VERY bright! The calculations seem very sensitive though...

Table 1 shows our dilemma in a stark way – there are periods when we could in principle survive on one of the outer bodies, but there are also long periods when none of these bodies is at a suitable temperature. In particular, we shall have to leave the Earth before even Mars is warm enough.

[Nick R]

Quite an interesting article on Solar evolution and earth's potential future.

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/press_office/media/media191.pdf

Clearly the "other effects" are significant, but the future doesn't look bright?

Or rather looks VERY bright! The calculations seem very sensitive though...

interesting link .thanks for posting it shall go away and study it