Monday, 21 March 2011

planetary science - Is there another explanation than an asteroid/volcano for the extinction event on Earth millions of years ago?

Look at Earth's orbit around the Sun. The orbit is an ellipse, but Earth never gets close enough for the Sun to cause any mass extinction. The Earth orbits the Sun every year, and because the orbit is stable, on average we are about 8 light minutes from the Sun.



One way the Earth's orbit might change is if the Sun has a sister companion, that is, a binary star; thus far no evidence suggests the existence of another star in our solar system, but a binary star could alter the orbit of a planet. You could become an Astronomer and try to prove your hypothesis and it would not be a wasted journey.




I see you edited your question. Now you have included some aspects about gravity which contradict current knowledge of gravity. I highly recommend reading about gravity. To start you off I will share with you a known fact about gravity. The Earth exerts the same gravitational force on the Sun that the Sun exerts on the Earth. $$F_1=F_2 = G *m_1*m_2/r^2$$



That is, both these objects attract each other with the same amount of force. Moreover, gravity is related to an objects mass, so unless the Sun or the Earth lost mass there would be no change.

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