is earth positioned perfecly vis-a-vis the sun?

obviously for the sake of life, better positioned than venus or mars.

okay, two questions.

1. how far can earth be placed further or closer to the sun while
still maintaing the existence of life, no matter how simple?

2. are we perhaps not perfectly postioned? would we better off if we
were placed a little closer or further away? do you think our
greenhouse problem will be alleviated if we move a little away from
the sun?
would we have better seasons and better crops if we were a bit closer
to the sun?

okay, now imagine a sci-fi scenario. can we build a device on earth
that takes us a little further away from or closer to the sun? let's
say a giant rocket launcher with the blasters facing against the sky.
so when we blast it, the earth moves in one or other direction? or is
this just ridiculous?

meat n potatoes wrote:
obviously for the sake of life, better positioned than venus or mars.

okay, two questions.

1. how far can earth be placed further or closer to the sun while
still maintaing the existence of life, no matter how simple?

2. are we perhaps not perfectly postioned? would we better off if we
were placed a little closer or further away? do you think our
greenhouse problem will be alleviated if we move a little away from
the sun?
would we have better seasons and better crops if we were a bit closer
to the sun?

okay, now imagine a sci-fi scenario. can we build a device on earth
that takes us a little further away from or closer to the sun? let's
say a giant rocket launcher with the blasters facing against the sky.
so when we blast it, the earth moves in one or other direction? or is
this just ridiculous?

Why are you cross-posting to a current-films newsgroup?

(meat n potatoes) wrote in
om:

obviously for the sake of life, better positioned than venus or mars.

okay, two questions.

1. how far can earth be placed further or closer to the sun while
still maintaing the existence of life, no matter how simple?


The earth's orbit around the Sun is eccentric. It's closest approach to
the Sun is about 3,000,000 miles closer than its' furtherest distance. So
there is already over 3% variation in distance over the year. In answer
to your question though. I would say that we wouldn't want to be too much
closer to the Sun than we are but could be ok somewhat further away. It
is thought that life on earth can not survive more than about 1GYA more
because the Sun is gradually heating up as it develops along its' main
sequence evolution. In about 5GYA the sun is expected to leave the main
sequence and expand into a red giant phase as it commences Helium burning
..


2. are we perhaps not perfectly postioned? would we better off if we
were placed a little closer or further away? do you think our
greenhouse problem will be alleviated if we move a little away from
the sun?
would we have better seasons and better crops if we were a bit closer
to the sun?

okay, now imagine a sci-fi scenario. can we build a device on earth
that takes us a little further away from or closer to the sun? let's
say a giant rocket launcher with the blasters facing against the sky.
so when we blast it, the earth moves in one or other direction? or is
this just ridiculous?


The way to move the earth outward would be to modify the orbits of comets
and asteroids to kick the earth into a higher orbit using a reverse
slingshot effect. It would take an awfull lot of comets though :-

An easier way that might work for a while would be to put big sun shades
into orbit.


LK.

Anthony Mandic asked:

Why are you cross-posting to a current-films newsgroup?
=============================

'Beware the Jabberwocky' my friends. Or in this case a Tarbaby. Check
your myths and legends.


TBerk

"meat n potatoes" wrote in message
om...
obviously for the sake of life, better positioned than venus or mars.

okay, two questions.

1. how far can earth be placed further or closer to the sun while
still maintaing the existence of life, no matter how simple?


Find a copy of it was either Discover or SciAm about 6 months back. Some
scientists did some modelling of this question.


2. are we perhaps not perfectly postioned? would we better off if we
were placed a little closer or further away? do you think our
greenhouse problem will be alleviated if we move a little away from
the sun?
would we have better seasons and better crops if we were a bit closer
to the sun?

okay, now imagine a sci-fi scenario. can we build a device on earth
that takes us a little further away from or closer to the sun? let's
say a giant rocket launcher with the blasters facing against the sky.
so when we blast it, the earth moves in one or other direction? or is
this just ridiculous?

"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
...

"meat n potatoes" wrote in message
om...
obviously for the sake of life, better positioned than venus or mars.

okay, two questions.

1. how far can earth be placed further or closer to the sun while
still maintaing the existence of life, no matter how simple?


Find a copy of it was either Discover or SciAm about 6 months back. Some
scientists did some modelling of this question.


2. are we perhaps not perfectly postioned? would we better off if we
were placed a little closer or further away? do you think our
greenhouse problem will be alleviated if we move a little away from
the sun?
would we have better seasons and better crops if we were a bit closer
to the sun?

okay, now imagine a sci-fi scenario. can we build a device on earth
that takes us a little further away from or closer to the sun? let's
say a giant rocket launcher with the blasters facing against the sky.
so when we blast it, the earth moves in one or other direction? or is
this just ridiculous?

I heard that the earth get warmer the further the sun is from the earth
(summer) and colder the closer it gets. So if the sun fell on the earth we
would freeze to death?

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 18:50:58 -0800, Chris wrote:


"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
...

"meat n potatoes" wrote in message
om...
obviously for the sake of life, better positioned than venus or mars.

[snip]

okay, now imagine a sci-fi scenario. can we build a device on earth
that takes us a little further away from or closer to the sun? let's
say a giant rocket launcher with the blasters facing against the sky.
so when we blast it, the earth moves in one or other direction? or is
this just ridiculous?

I heard that the earth get warmer the further the sun is from the earth
(summer) and colder the closer it gets. So if the sun fell on the earth we
would freeze to death?


Heh!

Well, if a giant rocket blaster was positioned to push the earth even the
smallest amount away from the sun (elongating the orbit which is
reasonably stable right now) would there be a bigger risk that a
it would only serve to bring the earth closer to the sun at another point
of the orbit by the law of conservation of momentum? If you pushed hard
enough would our nice gentle orbit turn into something else altogether different?

O'

"Chris" wrote in message
. ..
this just ridiculous?

I heard that the earth get warmer the further the sun is from the earth
(summer) and colder the closer it gets. So if the sun fell on the earth
we
would freeze to death?

Not quite. What controls the seasons more than the distance from the Sun is
the axial tilt.

During winter, the hemisphere in question is tilted away from the sun,
resulting in shorter days and longer nights, hence less heating and more
cooling.

However, in fact, the Earth's closest approach to the Sun is during the
Northern winter. But it's the tilt that really matters.

"Chris" wrote in message
. ..

I heard that the earth get warmer the further the sun is from the earth
(summer) and colder the closer it gets. So if the sun fell on the earth we
would freeze to death?

While it is true that perihelion currently occurs during
the northern winter season (at the beginning of January
in fact), the seasons themselves are due to the tilt of
the Earth's axis. The hemisphere tipped towards the Sun
is warmer than the one tipped away.

The effect on the seasons of the yearly variation of
distance to the Sun is very minor, as the Earth's orbital
eccentricity is small, 0.0167, making the orbit practically
circular. Since perihelion occurs during northern winter,
it probably serves to moderate northern winters and summers
just a very tiny bit, and make southern summers and winters
a very tiny bit more extreme.

Anthony Mandic wrote:

meat n potatoes wrote:

obviously for the sake of life, better positioned than venus or mars.

okay, two questions.

snippo

Why are you cross-posting to a current-films newsgroup?

It's a hilarious story, but.....yyyyyou don't wanna know. :-D

Derek Janssen, RAMC-F (let's just say it involves the words "troll" and
"failure")