Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Joe L. Ogan on 04/07/2010 23:19:15
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Has anyone ever thought about moving the planet earth to another solar system? I have thought about this a great deal. There are many problems associated with the idea but I believe that it may be possible in about another billion years. I would be interested in reaction to the idea. Thanks for comments. Joe L. Ogan
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Whilst I agree that it may be necessary to move the earth for life to survive in about one billion years what makes you think that it may be possible to move the earth slightly further from the sun to cool it off a bit let alone move it to a different solar system after that length of time.
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The simplelest way to do this would be to position a LHC like black hole creating satellite in the appropriate position so that the newly created BH sweeps thru the Solar system dragging the Earth along with it.
Quite accurate positioning will be required.
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Dont be silly syhprum that is totally pointless and not good thinking. To create a black hole with a given gravitational field you need as least as much mass as the strength of the field you need to create (i.e at least as much mass as say the earth) plus lots of energy (mass) to compress it. It is far simpler just to use the mass as a gravitating object and if you could move a mass as great at the earth around its much simpler to move the earth in the first place!
The only way to move the earth is with a substantial and not too strong force because the earth is fragile and would be substantially damaged by say a gravitational field big enough to move it when acting on a normal human timescale It needs a continuous force acting for millennia. To move it out of the solar system entirely to another star would require billions of years and long lived artificial suns to keep the eco system going.
Even if you try to move the earth you must also remember that the solar system orbits are all in effect linked together and affected by the giant planets in a sort of chaotic but reasonably stable oscillation.
The only solution for life in this scenario is moving some people to other planets and/or space based colonies using a small part of the earth's population. The main human population will always be fixed to the earth and will die with it and the rest of life when the sun becomes too hot.
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A silly question was asked so I gave a silly answer, it would seem that my feeble attempt at humour failed.
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Why move the entire planet? You would be easier off just starting a new biosphere on a suitable planet and using earth bacteria and such as the beginning, then algae and finishing off with simple plants and then the full biome can be recreated in the end. This will be a good way to create multiple copies of our little blue marble.
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sorry syhprum I did not see it as a humorous reply. It is very easy to make this mistake in written replies like this unless you make it perfectly obvious with suitable emoticons. I agree that the original question is a bit silly but after asking the questioner to reveal a little more of his claimed thinking on the subject I tried to give the possibility some serous thought within the limits of real science. At the present rate of progress it appears to be very likely that mankind will not survive as a significant intellect on this planet for more than a few thousand years unless they become far more disciplined and understand fully the limits of the resources that they have available.
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Actually there is some evidence for stars presumably one of a binary pair travelling at high velocity as if to leave the galaxy after interaction with a wandering star or black hole.
This was my inspiration for the unlikely scenario that I suggested.
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Yes I agree that stars and planets can be ejected at high speeds from their systems after gravitational interactions but we are talking about processes that can be controlled by human beings.
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Assuming we had the technology and energy for the Earth to break the Sun's gravity, in deep space and no external heat source our planet would freeze, the atmosphere would turn solid and all life as we know it would cease to exist. We may well be able to keep human's alive but the ecosystem that we depend on would soon go.
A wayward star may well come to our rescue and sweep us away from the Sun but the sort of pinball required for us to come out unscathed would be almost impossible to achieve.
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It would seem a lot easier to terraform a new planet and create a new bio sphere, but if we still wan't to consider this and not imposing any technological limits then there are ways, some practical and some theoretical in which I will list a few.
1)The good old fashioned way, the earth could be towed by something bigger, say a ship the size of jupiter with its own thrust and the towing mechanism being more of a net as not to rip a single part out, we could then cover the planet in say a huge techno insulation blanket to protect it on the journey (very hard from our standards although the basic idea is sound, any satellite can be towed.
2)If nature can be mastered then folding space and bridging two points with a wormhole the size of the earth would be a solution. Huge amounts of Negative energy would be required to keep it open, also shielding would be required.
3)According to micheo Kaku theoretical physicist "if quantum physics is correct then it is possible that you could wake up one day on the moon, although this would take the lifetime of the universe", so if quantum jumps could be controlled then the entire earth in theory could "quantum jump" to its new position if every single atom in the planet jumped at the same place its own designated postion.
As the task is surmount to the impossible, relative solutions would have to equal that and my solutions get progressively impossible from 1-3.
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There is actually a fairly practical known way to move the Earth.
What you do is move some asteroids around and set them up to swing around Jupiter and the Earth, and you arrange that they always go past from a particular direction, so that, over time, their gravity as they go past progressively changes the orbit of the Earth, inwards or outwards.
It would be a long job though, probably take a few centuries to do (say to move it to where Mars is), but it's probably just about possible with more or less current technology.
Getting the Earth to leave the solar system can probably also be done, but I doubt you would be able to get it to another star system in a feasible time with any current tech.
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My own experimentations have proven this quite possible
(On a smaller scale with a ping-pong ball and paddle, of course)
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Sounds good. Let us know when you intend to scale this up. [;)]