NASA wants to move Earth.
 

Scientists have found an unusual way to prevent our planet overheating: move it to a cooler spot.

All you have to do is hurtle a few comets at Earth, and its orbit will be altered. Our world will then be sent spinning into a safer, colder part of the solar system.

This startling idea of improving our interplanetary neighbourhood is the brainchild of a group of Nasa engineers and American astronomers who say their plan could add another six billion years to the useful lifetime of our planet – effectively doubling its working life.

‘The technology is not at all far-fetched,’ said Dr Greg Laughlin, of the Nasa Ames Research Center in California. ‘It involves the same techniques that people now suggest could be used to deflect asteroids or comets heading towards Earth. We don’t need raw power to move Earth, we just require delicacy of planning and manoeuvring.’

The plan put forward by Dr Laughlin, and his colleagues Don Korycansky and Fred Adams, involves carefully directing a comet or asteroid so that it sweeps close past our planet and transfers some of its gravitational energy to Earth.

‘Earth’s orbital speed would increase as a result and we would move to a higher orbit away from the Sun,’ Laughlin said.

Engineers would then direct their comet so that it passed close to Jupiter or Saturn, where the reverse process would occur. It would pick up energy from one of these giant planets. Later its orbit would bring it back to Earth, and the process would be repeated.

In the short term, the plan provides an ideal solution to global warming, although the team was actually concerned with a more drastic danger. The sun is destined to heat up in about a billion years and so ’seriously compromise’ our biosphere – by frying us.

Hence the group’s decision to try to save Earth. ‘All you have to do is strap a chemical rocket to an asteroid or comet and fire it at just the right time,’ added Laughlin. ‘It is basic rocket science.’

The plan has one or two worrying aspects, however. For a start, space engineers would have to be very careful about how they directed their asteroid or comet towards Earth. The slightest miscalculation in orbit could fire it straight at Earth – with devastating consequences.

It is a point acknowledged by the group. ‘The collision of a 100-kilometre diameter object with the Earth at cosmic velocity would sterilise the biosphere most effectively, at least to the level of bacteria,’ they state in a paper in Astrophysics and Space Science. ‘The danger cannot be overemphasised.’

There is also the vexed question of the Moon. As the current issue of Scientific American points out, if Earth was pushed out of its current position it is ‘most likely the Moon would be stripped away from Earth,’ it states, radically upsetting out planet’s climate.

These criticisms are accepted by the scientists. ‘Our investigation has shown just how delicately Earth is poised within the solar system,’ Laughlin admitted. ‘Nevertheless, our work has practical implications. Our calculations show that to get Earth to a safer, distant orbit, it would have to pass through unstable zones and would need careful nurturing and nudging. Any alien astronomers observing our solar system would know that something odd had occurred, and would realise an intelligent lifeform was responsible.

‘And the same goes for us. When we look at other solar systems, and detect planets around other suns – which we are now beginning to do – we may see that planet-moving has occurred. It will give us our first evidence of the handiwork of extraterrestrial beings.’

Original article: http://www.impactlab.com/2009/08/11/...ove-the-earth/

Someone's been watching too much Futurama...

..........................Are you kidding me? Moving the earth??? WHAT?

I was interested till aliens were mentioned, like someone once said If there are aliens they are smart enough to stay away from us.
Besides that the atmosphere would drastically change and what of the comet debris? let alone where the planet would end up and what it would do to the world in general. One lil mess up and it could terribly ruin the world....I dont believe I trust humans enough for this to happen
This is a rather drastic means to save a planet I think

Moving away would pretty much be the only option further on in the Sun's lifetime. Not anytime soon of course.

Some of the actual ideas to reduce global warming are interesting, like cloud ships.

How long till they do this? I want to see snowy winters.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I just recently saw the episode where Haley's comet ran out of ice to drop into the ocean to counter global warming so in the end they ended up pushing the earth further from the sun.

Frankly I REALLY dont like this idea, it's bad enough scientists are experimenting with things like biological warfare, and the Large Hadron collider which in theory could create a black hole. This is somthing entirely different, this isn't somthing that can be reasonably contained within some highly secure lab.

Did they bother thinking of the ecological consequences of moving the earth farther from the sun? What are we going to do when the animals start noticing the change? we cant just tell them "well hey we decided to move the earth and make the year longer, please change your biological clocks in accordance". The plants will undoubtably be affected as well.

Then there is the matter of us getting used to it, the calendar year will have to be changed, people's age in years will be affected. There are the seasonal busnesses that will have to deal with the logistics of an extended season, and this isn't just in our country this is worldwide.

Hell I could write a series of books listing off each and every thing that would have to be changed if we moved the earth further from the sun, and there are probobly countless things huamnity simply doesnt know about that could happen if we were to do somthing that drastic.

Also Alan snowy winters arnt all they're cracked up to be, many people get killed every year due to the snow.

Yah like all die.

Also before anyone mentions, I also know this will likely never happen in our lifetime, or at all, but I still dont like it.

I hope nothing like this happens in my lifetime :(

If I had ideas like this i'd be rich to......

This offends me highly ...and they would realize they were smart to stay away and laugh at our folly....

Why would anyone even think of doing this, unless they want to kill 99% of life on Earth? Want to move a planet? Go move Mars.

Well if you're going to do it for that motivation, move a different planet.

Wouldn't moving earth further from the sun change gravitational values as well. i.e. less strong. Or haven't I really been paying attention in physics.

Depends on how far we move. And, of course, if we take the moon with us. But if we move only 500,000 miles (for example), the solar constant will decrease, but the gravitational constant of the sun and all the celestial bodies around us will be practically nothing. Of course, there's still the matter of the various comets and asteroids whose orbits come close to us due to irregular orbits.

Honestly, it's something I think we shouldn't mess with.

This is just laughable. It shows why mankind will eventually kill itself off.

As Seinfeld once said, mankind is stupid. People were dying because of head injuries. What do they do? Quit being involved in activities which cause head injuries? No we make helmets and keep knocking our heads together.

Now we have almost destroyed the environment to the point life can't exist on Earth. What do we do? Try to figure out ways to move the entire planet, because we don't want to stop banging up the environment.

Could alter Earth's rotation and add a few hours to the day? I could use more sleep.

It's the article suggesting it could be used to combat global warming now, the people working on it never said it was viable for that. It wouldn't really matter if it went wrong during it's intended task as the Earth would be on it's way out anyway.

Yeah, but that just means the Earth has to go round the Sun at a different speed.

You believe the LHC ending the world crap? It's safe.

Why am I picturing the "Death Star" in my head while reading the article?.....

lol, yeah, I think it came up, along with all that stuff about annihilating life down to the bacteria level, and destroying the environment by knocking the moon out of orbit.

Listen, this is not something that will be rushed into, and I doubt it will be considered to occur during our lifetime. The scientist are well aware of the known and unkown repercussions of an action like this

It can destroy the earth, but I never said it will, I said it could, and the scientists know that too. To deny that there is at least a extremely unlikely chance of that happening would be unwise.

The physics in the operation of the LHC already occurs at higher energies in the atmosphere.

There are also reasons why any black hole would be harmless, but the whole it happens all the time and we're still here thing should do.

I would have no desire to move a planet I dont believe in imposing my will on another living thing and that includes cells and shit....

I doubt you'll find anything living on Venus or Mercury.

You never know whats beneath the surface . Besides humanity should die out.....why would I want to attempt to save it? not worth the effort