• Question: Is the Earth moving very slowly towards or away from the Sun?

    Asked by mushixxx to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      The Earth’s orbit changes (precesses) all the time by very small amounts – this causes ice ages. When the Sun dies in billions of years time, it will lose a lot of mass from its surface, which will cause the Earth’s orbit to expand, if the Earth isn’t destroyed first by the Sun expanding in size.

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      The Earth is gaining mass all the time too – particles from outer space from tiiiiiny dust to large meteroites hit the surface all the time. The amount is probably less than 100 thousand tons per year. This isn’t enough to make a huge difference to the orbit, because the Earth is waaaaaaaay bigger and heavier, but every little bit counts!

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      The moon, though, is moving slowly away from us! Eventually we won’t have full eclipses anymore – they’re only because of a coincidence that the size of the sun and moon look the same to us! (The sun is 400x bigger than the moon, but 400x further away)

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