As the title says. I’m actually thinking about this hard with my friends because everything that’s produced on Earth stays on Earth so it doesn’t change size, but what if it’s not from Earth but it stays on Earth?
What about all the mass and materials turned into satellites and rovers that have been sent off planet? Has Earth shrank?
Simple Answer: Yes.
Everytime we launch something into space the mass of Earth itself decreases by that amount. There is also energy trade off with the mass stealing a bit of earth’s momentum/energy for it to continue as well.
Overall, we’re talking about absolutely micro, if not smaller changes in mass and energy and it ultimately has zero affect on anything.
Yes, this is called accretion. Planets and other solar system components grow this way from the dust and gas leftover from a star being formed.
As a kid I used to think that as leaves fall to the ground and decompose the earth just keeps getting bigger.
That doesn’t answer your question, but there you have it.
This happens naturally in the form of meteors streaking through the sky. Each one of those is adding a tiny amount of mass to the planet.
But you’ve got me wondering about something now. When a large asteroid hits the planet, it obviously adds its own mass, but it also kicks up a lot of debris into space. Some percentage of that will reach orbital escape velocity and never come back. But I honestly don’t know if there is a net mass increase or decrease after such an event? We’re generally concerned about other more pressing matters in such a scenario!
One of the proposed methods for terraforming Mars is to lob a bunch of icy rocks at it. That would increase its mass but more significantly also the energy of the falling rocks would convert to heat and melt the ice into water. So enough energy to increase Earth’s size would also heat the surface and kill life.
Happens all the time, for eons. See: “shooting stars”.
Yes the mass will change. It’s a part of some Sci Fi tropes that for highly populated planets that the same mass of people coming on just match those coming off. Or else the planet will shrink or grow
You could pound it with astroids
You should maybe invite it to dinner first.
Earth gains 5200 tons each year from dust from space making it to the ground.
It seems like a lot but the Planet weights 65,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
