Is It Worth Changing Earth's Orbit ??

A. How would we change the Earth's orbit?

B. That would alter the balance of climate on Earth Leading to disaster...

C. If we could do that, and if we were willing to risk the climate and end life as we know it, how do we know that we aren't in the path of another even worse catastrophic event?

D. Have you lost your mind?

I agree. Let me know when you find out how to do it.

You can't be serious!

Why not ask your instructor? With students like you, he probably needs a laugh.

You need to study some physics, so that you can compute the energies involved in this and other prospective strategies.

Now look here - Captain Marvel did this in 1953. Things have moved on a lot since then. I see no problem with this idea at all.

Because of the law of unforseen consequences.
Del

You do see that by pointing out the ramifications of the law of unseen consequences, you are essentially breaking the law (of unseen consequences)....as far as i can see.

.

See what I mean?

Yeah. I used to put time in for unforseen problems in my project timescales, but at the meetings I would get asked what they were .
Del
_{(The bodies were disposed of in the incinerator)}

You didn't foresee this? :-)

If we had the power, capability and sufficient time to move the 5.97 * 10^24 kilograms of the Earth, along with the 7.36 * 10^22 kilograms of the Moon to dodge one asteroid then why wouldn't we move the asteroid instead.

Are you trying to inject sense into this thread?

Yes, but only because I knew that this question would attract many nonsensical answers for this nonsensical question.

Yeah, great idea. We'll just move the the Earth when the asteroid comes zipping by, then move it back after the asteroid has gone by. We'll need to be sure to tell everyone to hold tight onto something for a few minutes while we move the Earth.

Don't know why NASA hasn't looked at this idea. OH, maybe because the Earth is a million times bigger than the asteroid...

Lets get our labels correct here. A mass a million times bigger than the Earth would not be an asteroid. The mass of Jupiter is about 1,900 times the mass of the Earth. A mass of a million times the Earth would be more like a brown dwarf. If a brown dwarf wanders through our solar system, well nobody will be collecting my life insurance policy.

The Sun is only 300000 x bigger mass than Earth, 2*10³⁰/(6*10²⁴) both in kg. So we'd probably notice this object! 10⁶ x bigger volume, as Sun is less dense.

Call it something else? A Big Ass..teroid.

Then it's not an asteroid, it's another planet - brown dwarf thingy. Bbbbbppptt!

You're right, that thingie's damn near big enough to be a dwarf.

Oh, don't listen to all these naysayers and wet blankets. Look, if Pierson's Puppeteers can move an entire bluddy solar system to escape the detonation of the galactic core, then moving an itty bitty planet like Earth shouldn't be much more than weekend project, no?

On the flip side there's going to be space junk pretty much anywhere you go and so, given enough time, it is inevitable that something is gonna wallop Earth Real Good sooner or later. Worse, as others here have pointed out in various and poetic ways, we'll hose the planet in the process and to the point where rogue asteroids will be the least of our worries.

A better idea, I think, is to identify threats early on using spacecraft such as WISE, and apply course corrections to the objects in question when the needed corrections are still fairly gentle (as opposed to waiting until the last minute when you've got to apply hellacious thrust just to nudge the bastard far enough off course where it won't skim the atmosphere). And, no, you don't want to blow them up. That would simply turn one Problem Object into many Problem Objects and nobody wants that.

Prolly better to leave Earth where it is and deal with the objects individually on an as-needed basis. First though, we have to know they're there. That always helps.

I showed your post to my wife who is a Real Perfesser at a local and semi-famous university.

She said, "We just need to have an asteroid rodeo an' rope that sucker!"

"You don't 'rope' asteroids, Darling."

"Well, it's just as good an answer as yourn!"

After being outta town for the past 4 days (and unfortunately in close proximity to my X and bratty daughters) I needed a good belly laugh at this one.....

too tired from traveling to go further......

Lets look at it from another point of view, the Earth is orbiting the sun at 107,000km/h and an asteroid is moving at some speed on a course that will intercept the earth. Why not just SLOW the speed of then earth so the asteroid passes in FRONT of the earth instead of hitting it?

This is as practical as trying to alter the earth's orbit from a tiny (in comparison) asteroid, which is as practical as moving a skyscraper building out of the way of a speeding bicycle.

The short answer is because it cannot be done due to the fundamental laws and principles of physics.

at last thr was some1 who worth an explanation frm me.. rest of thm were really njoing it as joke..

well.. your point have already crossed in my mind.. There are good possibilities to slow down but if we want to get back to the original speed, i think accelerating a body under Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces is not possible unless th orbit diameter is altered.

And I can't explain further abt the physics behind my idea where I need to speak abt Heisenberg theory, quantum mechanics etc.. and ultimately make people laugh on it again.

My intention was to bring some professors to the discussion so that I would gain some knowledge out of it. Unfortunately none of them were likely to discuss but make fun of it.

definitely books will help me regarding the possibilities of my idea but I'm not a reading person… I end up reading for hardly 30mins and so I've posted a thread here.

I'm sealing off this issue here… bye

When in doubt, always go back to the fundamental equations. Albert Einstein was way ahead of the rest of the world with his famous, very simple and thoroughly satisfying equation:

E = MC²

That is to say: Eggnog = Milk X Custard²

I have found that this has smoothed my way through life.

There is a more practical way than slowing down a massive mass (such as the earth) and that is, quite simply, to generate a field (or similar) around the mass and temporally "phase shift" it out of space time (or similar) so the asteroid passes right through but does not effect the earth directly.

Obviously this line of discussion is very theoretical and outside or current technological ability but potentially possible (and probably more possible than slowing and speeding up such a large mass).

Other theoretical possibilities are to create a Wormhole in front of the earth so the earth enters the Wormhole before the asteroid and safely exits beyond the asteroid. The asteroid passes through the space the earth would have been in but the earth has jumped passed this point in the Wormhole, and hence is not hit by the asteroid.

The advantage here is that the speed of the earth is un-effected, the disadvantage is that the entry and exit points of the Wormhole need to be relatively close or the Earth will not maintain its existing orbit around the sun and will end up flying off and re-establish another orbit somewhere else in the solar system further away from the sun (in which case we all freeze to death).

I prefer the idea of being able to locally change the upper atmosphere into a non-Newtonian fluid to dramatically increase the friction imparted to the asteroid. Instead of trying to prevent the asteroid from intersecting all of the Earth, the asteroid will be guaranteed to vaporize far above land and sea. This technology should also have the added advantage of global climate control.

Just wrap the planet in a few Angstroms of scrith and be done with it. I want the contract of course. :-)

There was a recent patent within the last few years for just such a thing, a giant dome for cities made out of a soap bubble covered in sand or metal filings.

The intention was that missiles fired at the dome (and by missiles I mean everything up to and including ICBM's equipped with nuclear warheads) would hit the solids on the surface of the soap bubble and the shear speed and mass of the two meeting would destroy the missile and save the city.

No I am not joking, this is a real approved patent and yes defeating nuclear missiles aimed at cities was the purpose. No I cannot remember the patent number (yes I tried to find it again).

A case of serious under and over estimation of the physical forces involved.

i think it will help in speeding up the rotations but not revolutions... earth is already revolving under zero friction... were i suppose...

It?

Which It?

I don't think you mean this friendly little fellow. You could hardly blame him(?) for making too much friction. Just look at the the sheen from that new creme rinse.

oops !! i'm so sorry i misread ur comment nd confused u to hell :D ?? by da way pics was so funny !!

and the idea of locally changing the upper atmosphere into a non-Newtonian fluid to increase the friction on asteroid.... is very good idea unless the sound created wont harm the living existence and the reaction forces does not show much effect on earths orbit... :)

Who says it can't be done? Which physics are violated? And how? Just because it would take the Sun's entire output for a few days to rearrange this part of the Solar System doesn't mean squat. Happens every year - somewhere in the Universe - and violently so. Besides, we ourselves pose the biggest threat to this planet and will prolly snuff ourselves long before learning to master such titanic forces. Either way, no fundamental physical laws need be violated.

Why not use the kinetic energy of the incoming asteroid? Or does it have the potential to make magnegas instead?

Why not use an Infinite Improbability Drive? It might require a lot of tea for the Brownian Motion producer, but I hear they have a lot of it (tea, I mean) in China.

I'm sure the guys at LynDoor^TM Industries or KrisDel^TM could spare a few minutes to knock one together, if we ask them nicely.

The Dubiously Evanescent KrisDel Productions recently announced their Self-Adhesive Hole which could be affixed to the planet such that the asteroid harmlessly passes through the Earth on its wayward trek but, as you can see, their Applications Engineering Dept. are still asleep at the wheel and hadn't thought of this cunning plan. Leave it to a bluddy Yank/Seppo to do their work for them! Heehee :-D