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| 5/24 |
| 2001/2/6-7 [Science/Space] UID:20514 Activity:moderate |
2/6 Moving the Earth (Archimedes would be proud):
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/02/05/earth.move/index.html
\_ not dumb, senile
\_ There are far more other problems that we need to worry about before
the sun warming up becomes a problem.
\_ We could move mars closer to an earth-like orbit, making it
more comfy. Then we'd have all the liebenstraum the grad
students would ever need, and they could stop trying to take
over 343 Soda. |
| 5/24 |
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| www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/02/05/earth.move/index.html Astronomers hatch plan to move Earth's orbit from warming sun graphic By Dennis Newman CNN Headline News writer (CNN) -- A group of astronomers has come up with a plan they claim will save life on Earth from an early demise. All it takes, they say, is moving the planet into a different orbit. At that time, the scientists say, the sun will be 40 percent brighter than it is today and the Earth will be too hot to sustain life. Even looking just a billion years down the road, the increased brightness of the sun would cause a "moist greenhouse" effect which will have a catastrophic impact on the planet. MESSAGE BOARD 35 NASA projects But what if the Earth could be moved farther away from the sun before it gets too hot for human life? The team says that by shooting a large object (such as an asteroid about 62 miles across) past the Earth, the planet could be gradually pulled away from the Sun. It would take thousands of encounters to make a difference. One million encounters would move the Earth out 41 million miles, or about 50 percent farther from the sun than it is today. But the researchers say that if the technique is repeated an average of every 6,000 years, the orbit could be increased to keep pace with the Sun's increasing brightness. The result, they say, would be to keep the Earth habitable for up to an extra 5 billion years. The scientists say their plan is not without some drawbacks. In order for this method to work, the asteroid would have to pass by Earth within about 10,000 miles. If the asteroid comes too close, it might break up or conceivably even slam into Earth. Another possible side effect of shooting such a large object past Earth, the scientists say, would be to increase the planet's rotation. The encounters would have to be planned so that while some would cause the Earth to spin faster, others would slow it down back to normal rotation speed. It's also possible that the moon would be thrown from its orbit around the Earth during these fly-bys. RELATED STORIES: 36 Pluto mission revived -- barely December 20, 2000 RELATED SITES: 37 University of California Santa Cruz 38 NASA Homepage 39 University of Michigan Note: Pages will open in a new browser window External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive. |