OT: Earth's orbit changing?

Kamog · #1 January 1st, 2004, 07:47 PM

According to this article: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science....ap/index.html

Since 1972, they have been adding a 'leap second' at the end of each year because the earth's movement through space is slowing down. But for some reason, in the most recent five years, the earth is no longer slowing down and they didn't have to add the leap second. They don't know why.

It seems to me that one second per year is a really big change, and it will really add up over millions of years? If the earth keeps slowing down like that, wouldn't the orbit decay and the earth spiral into the sun?

[Edit: mark topic as OT]

[ January 01, 2004, 17:49: Message edited by: Kamog ]

PvK · #2 January 2nd, 2004, 12:53 AM

It might vascillate, rather than steadily changing in one direction. The interior isn't solid, and we don't really know exactly what is going on down there. Lava-hampsters playing with their magnetic gyroscopes, maybe...

PvK

narf poit chez BOOM · #3 January 2nd, 2004, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Lava-hampsters playing with their magnetic gyroscopes, maybe...

there a little obsessive about those things, to.

Baron Munchausen · #4 January 3rd, 2004, 02:47 AM

Hmm, there are only 31,536,000 seconds in a year. At a loss rate of one second per year we'd be falling into the sun in very short order on a geologic time scale. Obviously this cannot have been going on for long if the earth has been here for billions of years. There must be something funky going on that we don't understand. Maybe the sun's magnetic field is strong enough to slow us down at times? Or some sort of time-space warping is going on to make it look like the earth's orbital period is changing when it is not. It would be funny if they discovered there was some calibration error in their instruments....

Cipher7071 · #5 January 3rd, 2004, 03:51 AM

Hmmm...something on the order of a second per year might be caused by our solar system passing through a denser part of space....say like some thicker hydrogen clouds. Whether that extra amount of friction would make a difference of a second a year is anybody's guess.

They do say that there are signs that the poles of Earth's magnetic field are getting ready to flip again, and that just before that happens there will be a temporary decrease in the strength of our magnetic field. Again, it's hard to say what the result of that will be on the length of a year, but that will definitely be a bad century for laying in the sun.

narf poit chez BOOM · #6 January 3rd, 2004, 03:56 AM

excuse my ignorance, but could we magnetically shield shelter's while that happens?

Baron Munchausen · #7 January 3rd, 2004, 04:03 AM

Assuming we could shelter everyone, and design farming machinery to shield the operators so we could continue to grow food from our shelters, there is still a very large question of what happens to the eco-system during this time. Lots of additional radiation will be reaching the earth's surface and we can't protect all of it. Maybe the mystery of how evolution seems to run in 'fits and starts' will be answered when the magnetic field winks out for a few centuries during its flip...

Thermodyne · #8 January 3rd, 2004, 04:06 AM

Well, as the earths mass increases, the time to complete an orbit would increase. Laws of physics at work. And when the Last administration was in office, the mass of bull crap they were shoveling out had to have a noticeable impact on the planets mass. Ergo you have it, blame it on Clinton/Gore

oleg · #9 January 3rd, 2004, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Assuming we could shelter everyone, and design farming machinery to shield the operators so we could continue to grow food from our shelters, there is still a very large question of what happens to the eco-system during this time. Lots of additional radiation will be reaching the earth's surface and we can't protect all of it. Maybe the mystery of how evolution seems to run in 'fits and starts' will be answered when the magnetic field winks out for a few centuries during its flip...

It will not be that bad. Even at the most extreme of the magnetic field flipping, the residual magnetic field will be strong enough to keep us safe. At worst, radiation will be like in polar regions today. All this stuff is good for scare stories in media but is in fact pretty harmless.

Atrocities · #10 January 3rd, 2004, 09:44 AM

I recall watching a show on the Discovery channel that talked about how the Moon is moving away from the Earth at an average rate of 2 inches per year and how that is effecting the Earths rotation. The mood acts as a stablizer and now that it has moved so far out away from the Earth, our oribit has begun to wobble more extremely than in years past.

Again this goes back to one of my old topics about how rare life realy is and that that rareness of life is extactly why I feel there are very few, less than 100 or so simular planets to earth in the galaxy that have humaniod type life of one type or another.