Move the Earth? (Playing God)

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Hard to believe anyone would even consider such a thing!

(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. Their deadline is about 3.5 billion years in the future. 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. But what if the Earth could be moved farther away from the sun before it gets too hot for human life? Researchers Don Korycansky of the University of California-Santa Cruz, Gregory Laughlin of NASA, and Fred Adams of the University of Michigan say the idea of changing the Earth's orbit is almost, "alarmingly feasible." The scientists' theory is outlined in a paper entitled "Astronomical engineering: A strategy for modifying planetary orbit." The paper has been accepted for publication in the journal "Astrophysics and Space Science." The researchers' theory is a twist on the "gravity-assist" technique used to send spacecraft to the outer planets. 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.

This is the whole story, but you can read it yourself at: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/02/05/earth.move/index.html Jack

-- jack (atl.jack@mailexcite.com), February 06, 2001

Answers

Hey Jack! Please forgive me for laughing! If man would concentrate all these efforts on how to cure the "common cold", cancer, poverty etc etc I think a lot more would be accomplished. Methinks I'll just let my Lord Jesus take care of His business and I'll continue to do what He has aske me to do. Besides all that, I think when I'm a couple billion years old I won't have to worry too much about the planet gett'n too hot or too cold! Good post. hoot. Matt.24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), February 06, 2001.

It is just a mental exercise -- physicists playing "what if". Gives them something to do rather than watching TV.

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), February 06, 2001.

Has the earth's orbit been changed in the past? Those who study ancient calendars note the oldest systems used a 360-day year, then there was a period of apparent confusion, followed by systems which changed to the 365-day year. This happened worldwide without contact between cultures. Writer/scientist Immanuel Velikovsky postulates Venus is a relative newcomer to our solar system. Its original orbit conflicted with that of Mars and may have resulted in a change of Mars' orbit closer to the sun - thereby drying out its surface waters. During the play between them (and there are historical records of Mars and Venus fighting in the sky), it slightly affected Earth. Two books I know of by him are Worlds in Collision and Earth in Upheaval. A follow-up one is Velikovsky Reconsidered: Do new space discoveries prove that Velikovsky was right? by the editors of Pensee magazine.

While at the library also see if the can borrow a copy of The H.A.B. Theory by Allan W. Eckert. It addresses polar shifts, which basically means the build-up of ice at the poles periodically rotate the Earth. One minute you are on a beach in Miami and the next at the north or south pole. If something like this hasn't happened before, why had magnetic north migrated? Why are frozen Mastadons found with fresh grass in their stomachs?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 06, 2001.


Ain't it great that there are people out there who can figure stuff like this out?!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), February 06, 2001.

"Give me a lever long enough and I will move the earth" - Euclid

Must be fun to get paid to speculate. The NASA scientist is on the Government payroll (tax dollars) and the university scientists are getting paid through student tuitions. Unless, of course they have a Government grant (more tax dollars).

Anyway...Ken, you bring up some good points. But the earth is slowing down, not speeding up, through atmospheric friction with land masses. As far as calendars, the ancient cultures really only cared about 4 dates. Spring Equinox (get ready to plant and Party), Summer Solstice (halfway to harvest and Party), Fall Equinox (harvest and Party ) and Winter Solstice (Spring is coming, let's Party). The days in between were up for grabs and the various cultures tackled the problem differently. The Incas actually had one of the most accurate calendars, but they didn't fare to well against the Spanish. Mostly, the ancient rulers measured time based on their length of rule on the throne. Julius Ceasar brought some order to the mess (Julian calendar), but calculated leap years incorrectly. So 1582 years later, Pope Gregory put a better fix in place, loped off 10 days from the current date and almost got himself killed in the process. 10 days less rent, taxes, revenue etc. So, now we have the better, but still clutzy, Gregorian calendar. The earth's rotation didn't change that much, just our way of calculating it.

Meanwhile, you can change the magnetic poles without changing the surface orientation of the earth to the sun, due to the liquid properties of the earth's interior. When liquid basalt (lava) wells up from the interior along the Mid-Atlantic ridge and spreads, it locks in the magnetic orientation at the time it cools. Examining the basalt from the ridge westward, scientists have discovered at least 13 flips of the magnetic pole from north to south.

Add to that, the fact that the continents are in motion. If you were born in the continental U.S. and did not move one inch from the spot you were born, then if you died at the ripe old age of 80, your body would be about 6 feet West from where you started.

And finally, glaciation locks up a tremendous amount of water and has a great affect on climate. But there is nothing to suggest that the earth has been "stood on it's head" by the amount of ice. It can affect the amount of wobble, but you're not going to flip the earth around. The physics just aren't there.

The mastadon with grass in its stomach? Several specimens have been found in known glacier fields where they fell through the ice traveling from one grazing area to another. What about the 5,000 year old ice man found in the Alps who froze to death while trying to cross the mountains? He too, had food in his stomach.

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), February 06, 2001.



Ken - Velikovsky has been repeatedly and unconditionally found to be a crank and a hack writer to boot. Sorry to be so blunt (and it's nothing personal to you - after all, it's not like he's your ghostwriter ar anything) (he's not, is he? Hee Hee). In any case, it has been shown many time over that his scenarios don't add up, mathmatically, and that many of his theories are both internally contradictory and also contradict other thoeries in the book. In many cases, in order to make one of his scenarios work, you have to discount a few laws of physics and suppositions that certain others of his theories rely upon for their existence. In other words, I doubt that anything that the scientists are doing could make Mr. V. right, although they could be theorizing along the same lines.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), February 06, 2001.

Soni: I don't have documentation to dispute you. But, I have seen in other works about very old calendars being based on a 360 day year, then a period of confusion, then all settled on 365+. Something had to happen.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 11, 2001.

In Velikovsky's book, he writes that all scholars and and higher schools of learning and scientists will debate and protest his findings facts and theories, and it has been so. It is clear from what I read here that none of you have seen the truth. Velikovsky collected records, and zeroed in on the phenomina of the biblicle writtings! He then proceded to find a scientific answer to those biblicle writtings. In doing so he assembled the largest collection of scientific proof to back up every word of the bible! Dr. Scott has gone through Velikovsky's material pointing out some of these details, and it's available in stream format in his archives under mysteries. Go to yahoo or what ever and do a search on "Earth In Upheaval by Velikovsky" and see all the different cults based on his works. Thats what you get from not reading properly and thouroughly. Not digging into the inspiration of a writting, such as the biblicle questions for his inspiration, or why, or even going to what he referenced or found and seeing the full scope of facts figures and data. God's word has proven itself!

-- pj (2pj@olywa.net), March 27, 2001.

Craig - For the record it was Archimedes who said the bit about levers, not Euclid, but anyhoo, there's a lot we don't know about orbital mechanics, but one thing that is known is that the temperature on earth is not merely linearly dependent upon our distance from the sun. Some variables are obvious, like greenhouse gases, but others are quite unsuspecting, like the angular momentum of a system (our sun and its satellites) can determine the energy output by our sun. In fact, only 60% of the energy given off from the sun can be accounted for by thermonuclear reaction, and measurements taken on most of the planets in our solar system show they radiate more energy than they receive from the sun, in some cases it is only marginally so, but in others it is quite astonishing. So from where does this extra energy come? Apparently, nobody knows, or at least no one with 'creditentials' is putting forth a credible explaination. In fact, there's no accepted model of the universe that can explain the presence of meteors and comets, but we know they exist.

Angular momentum does a lot to explain why we had ice ages in the past and why we may well have them again in the future, but I believe the hypothesis was born from hyperdimensional proponents, and that field of thought is strenuously rejected by the in crowd of the scientific community. That being said, hyperdimensional physics sure does deign to explain many of the mysteries our current astro- and quantum physicists can't. It's the most fascinating stuff I've read in many years, and if the spokesmen of hyperdimensional physics are certifiable or they are just portrayed that why by the in crowd, it makes one thing clear. What we don't know about the cosmos is so vast that when we learn it, it will be likely be far removed from what we suspect now.

Of particular interest is THE expert and pioneer in the field of orbital mechanics, Thomas Van Flandern. This guy is tops in my book, and he supports hyperdimensional physics because it's the only thing yet that can explain what he has documented empirically about the orbit of Mars. Flandern believes that Mars was once a satellite of a 10th planet in our solar system. That planet literally 'blew up', creating the astroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and hurled Mars into its current, 'eccentric' orbit. There is a lot of controversy involving NASA in many areas, but if you wade through all the conspiracy theories, whatever is eventually discovered about Earth's orbit, past, current and future, it won't shock me too much.

-- jb (jwbowman@flash.net), April 16, 2001.


This has been a technocratic fantasy of scientists and engineers since they read Jules Verne as a kid. It represents a dangerous mentality fostered by the misguided and elitist belief that humans can so alter the environment through technology that they are as gods, and thus should. Thus, they take responsibility for changing the environmental conditions of every creature on Earth, not just man. Just another manifestation of the machine taking over. NASA is a hotbed of totalitarian technological ideas such as this.

-- renee (rjmcm@iwon.com), May 18, 2001.


If we start now, can we get the Earth moved out to the neighborhood of the Intergalactic Shopping Mall in time to do our Christmas Consumerism?

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), May 18, 2001.


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