| Earth Moving? Certain NASA Scientists Consider Changing our Planet's Orbit...on Purpose! A Special Report by Jenny L. Nielsen |
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| August heat wave getting you down? Worried about global warming? Is the sun growing just a little bit too fast for your comfort? A group of U.S. astronomers think they know how to solve these problems--just move the Earth further from the source of the heat! Gregory Laughlin of NASA, Fred Adams of the University of Michigan, and Don Korycansky of the University of Santa Cruz have recently released a paper in the journal, "Astrophysics and Space Science," in which they claim that modifying the Earth's orbit is not only "alarmingly feasible," but that it may eventually prove necessary in order to keep the life on our planet safe. As any modern astronomer would be able to tell you, our 5 billion year old sun is just hitting middle age. When it begins to expend its interior hydrogen supply and near "old age" in another 3.5 billion years or so, it will begin to significantly expand, quickly growing into what scientists call a "supergiant" star and probably eventually swallowing the Earth entirely into its fiery sphere. Maybe it seems a little bit ridiculous worrying about something that might happen more than a billion years from now, but, perhaps spurred on by the current "global warming" controversy, that's just what the forementioned trio of American scientists are doing right now. In the paper, "Astronomical Engineering: A Strategy for Modifying Planetary Orbit" the team goes on to propose an intruiging theory on how to relocate our planet from its current orbital hot spot and keep us Earthlings cool. Applying a strange twist to the "gravity assist" technique used to send NASA spacecraft into the distant bound- aries of our solar system, the team claims that the Earth could be pulled away from the sun using another object's gravitational pull. By shooting a large object--for instance, a "62 mile long asteroid"--just past the Earth, "Pulling the Earth" scientists would be able to gradually attract using an asteroid's gravity our planet away from an early demise. The researches claim that if this technique is repeated on an average of every 6,000 years, our orbit could be increased enough to keep the planet habitable for an extra 5 billion years. The theory looks pretty good on paper, but it is not without its problems. If the asteroid passes within 10,000 miles of the Earth during its fly-by, our planet's gravity might cause the rock to break into pieces. Theoretically, the asteroid could also slam into our planet (or our moon!) and cause a lot of trouble for us Earthlings. We could also accidentally pull our Earth too far away from the sun, causing our planet to get just a little bit too chilly. Another possible side effect addressed in the paper is a possible slowing of our Earth's rotation. While increasing our year by another 365.25 days or so probably wouldn't do much physical harm (although it could do some weird things to our calander!), interfering with our 24 hour day rotation could cause serious problems with our planet's wildlife. Most Earthling species have adapted to survive with our 24 hour day lighting system--longer days and longer nights could disrupt our environment severely. The scientists are in the process of planning methods to counter-balance this hazard. Earth has managed to keep itself going for many millions of years on an approximately 365 day orbit. Our Earthling scientists may mean well, but I still put my faith on the abilities of dear old Mother Nature. Unless global warming really heats up, or the sun goes on an unexpected early "growing spurt," we probablt won't have to worry about NASA carrying out plans to alter our planet's course for another thousand years or so. For now, I'm quite satisfied with our traditional, 365.24219 day orbit. --Jenny L. Nielsen If you're in the Kansas City, Missouri, area, you can tune your radio into "Wonderland," a weekly Friday morning talk show on KCXL, 1140 AM, at 9:00 A.M. Ms. Nielsen regularly appears as a science reporter on this program, discussing the latest breaking science stories, topics and issues. |
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