2 ms·
The mass of the earth is irrelevant for its orbit around the sun, so there's no effect there. That's why comets, asteroids, motes of dust, and planet can all ma
by spenczar5 6y ago
The mass of the earth is irrelevant for its orbit around the sun, so there's no effect there. That's why comets, asteroids, motes of dust, and planet can all maintain orbits (see https://faculty.virginia.edu/skrutskie/ASTR1210/notes/orbeq.html https://faculty.virginia.edu/skrutskie/ASTR1210/notes/orbeq...., for example).
It matters for the moon in theory, but not in practice. The moon needs to move at 1,001m/s to stay in orbit (formula: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=+sqrt%28G+*%28mass+of+the+earth%29%2F+distance+to+the+moon%29+ https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=+sqrt%28G+*%28mass+of+...). If we added the mass of the entire asteroid belt to the earth's mass... it would still be the same within a rounding error; the orbital velocity changes by a tiny amount (https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=+sqrt%28%28gravitational+constant%29+*%28%28mass+of+the+earth%29+%2B+total+mass+of+asteroid+belt%29%2F+distance+to+the+moon%29+ https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=+sqrt%28%28gravitation...).