What would happen if the earth were thrown off its axis by a degree?
It would not change the rotation of the earth around the sun. It would, however, change the weather patterns, depending on the direction of the change. If the change were to make the axis of rotation more perpendicular to the plane of earth's orbit around the sun, the winters would be warmer and the summers would be colder. If the axis change is moving further from being perpendicular to the plane of earth's rotation around the sun, the winters and summers would become more extreme.
Is the sun getting closer to earth?
There don't seem to be many people here actually thinking this through for more than a half second before making up their minds, so let me shed some light on the subject. The Earth is not getting closer or farther from the sun in any abnormal way, and here's why: Part 1, Orbit: The Earth is in a constant orbit around the sun, meaning we will neverstop traveling through space, unless a mass equal to or greater than our sun enters the influence range of the sun and earth, which won't happen for a very long time. Part 2, Gravity: Since we have already established that the orbit will not change, let's talk about gravity. I bet you're thinking, "He can't know that for certain! We might be in danger any day now." Well, NASA is able to see millions of lightyears out into space, if something was headed towards us, we would know it probably thousand of years ahead of time. Part 3, Temperature: So, now we know that nothing in space is going to pull us out of orbit. But even if there was, if we were getting closer to the sun, we would burn up in the course of about 6-8 months. Although the distance between the Earth and the Sun varies about 3 million miles in the course of a year, that is because the orbit around the Sun is not a perfect circle, It is a type of oval called en ellipse (I am only assuming that it is an ellipse. I know for certain that the Moon is in an ellipse-shaped orbit around the Earth, and I'm assuming it is the same with the Earth and Sun, but I am not 100% certain.) which is closer to the center in some areas. This varied distance is a major contributer to the transitions from seasons, Summer being closest to the sun, and Winter being farther from it. If the earth is thrown a mile away from its orbit, a large enough distance that it would be permantently closer year-around, the Earth would spiral out of control, sucked into the sun itself, the planet obliterated long before getting close enough to see a different from the surface. Likewise, if it was thrown farther away, enough that it enters the influence of another planet, most likely Jupiter or Saturn, it would most likely become unbalanced, crashing into that planet, creating a chain reaction, eventually destroying most if not all of our solar system. Since neither of these has not happened yet, obviously, it probably won't happen any time soon.
If earth got closer to the sun would the days last longer or shorter?
The length of the solar day would indeed increase. Here is the math that proves it... Currently, the vernal equinox year (the year that most closely matches the length of the Gregorian Calendar most of the world uses) is 365.2422 24-hour days long. That is 8765.813 hours long. The Earth rotates once every 23.934 hours. So that means the Earth rotates 366.24 or so times in one year. As you can see, this is precisely one more rotation than days. This is a good hard rule. A planet that rotates in the same direction that it orbits it's star will have precisely one less solar day in it's year than the number of rotations it makes in a year (because one rotation is cancelled out by the orbit). As a side note, if the planet rotates in the opposite direction than what it orbits, it will have precisely one more solar day than the number of rotations in a year, because the orbit adds on an "extra" rotation. So... lets say the Earth got closer and only took 7000 hours to orbit the sun. We know how long it takes for it to make a rotation, so it would rotate 292.47 times in one of these shorter years. That means there would be 291.47 solar days in this year. That would make average solar day 7000 / 291.47 = 24.016 hours long or 24 hours and 58 seconds long. The solar day has thus become slightly longer.
Why does earth not fall down even though it is hanging in space?
the earth isn't sitting close enough to a large mass who's gravity could suck it in. technically, the earth is constantly "falling" towards the sun, but because of the shape of our orbit, that fall is in a circular shape that will never actually bring us closer to the center. think of swinging a ball tied to a string in a circle. the string is the gravity between the earth and the sun, pulling the earth towards the sun (or the ball towards you). The only force acting on the ball is the string, the only force acting on the earth is gravity. they both pull directly inwards and yet the earth goes around the sun and the ball orbits around you. that's the best way to describe it. Also, to clarify your question, the earth does not fall "down" towards the sun, since there is no real thing called down since einstein came out with the theory of relativity, this is especially true in outerspace. The only reference we use for "down" is where gravity pulls towards the center of earth, and this isn't a single direction, since the earth is round anyway
What will happen if the earth is closer to sun 1cm?
Our distance from the sun varies du to our eliptical orbit. thus 1 cm would not make much of a difference. all things have an affect so the global temps would be raised very slightly. However if the earth was moved a few hundred miles closer (along all parts of the elliptical orbit) then global weather patterns would be thrown off due to the increase global temps and the increase humidity caused by rappidly evaporating oceans and melted ice caps.
This guy Shubham Mishra answered the question most correctly. But I would like to add a little bit info:LET'S START WITH THE BASIC STUFF:Our everyday experience teaches us that an object must be "pushed" by a force in order to keep it moving. Otherwise, it will slow down and eventually stop. But this intuition is absolutely wrong. If an object is moving, then a force is required *to slow it down or stop it*, not to keep it moving. (Hence, "Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest.") In our everyday experience, it's the force of friction that tends to stop Earth-bound objects from moving forever. But for the Earth rotating on its axis, there is no force working to counteract the rotation (except the tidal effect of the Moon, but that's working very slowly), so you don't need to have any input energy to keep it spinning.NOW, What started the earth rotating in the first place? OR WHY IS THE EARTH ROTATING ITSELF?(WHICH IS THE QUESTION)The shortest answer to this question is angular momentum. Angular momentum is simply the name we give for the fact that things tend to rotate. (Just like regular momentum is the tendency for things to move.) The Earth formed out of a nebula that collapsed. As the nebula collapsed it began rotating, which may seem odd, but actually not rotating is far stranger than rotating. The Earth's rotation comes from the initial tendency to rotate that was imparted on it when it formed, only the relatively weak tidal forces from the Moon act to slow it down.I hope this may satisfy your need. Ty for the request. If you like my answer please upvote, comment and share and for more information watch out for my other answers.
The obvious answer is that the earth would warm up. This would cause rises of sea levels and a general climatic shift similar to what would happen if you dumped a heap of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The severity of this depends on how close you move the earth to the sun. For example, if you moved it close enough to warm up the earth by 4 degrees:Eventual sea rise is fifty meters. Economies collapse as they cannot produce enough food. People are forced to move away from the coast in the millions. While we would probably survive it unless a country starts waving around nukes, we would have death tolls of millions. Cities like Cairo could become uninhabitable, and cities like Phoenix and Adelaide could reach 45 degree tempratures... every day... for three to four months of the year.Solar eclipses wouldn't work anymore. They only work because the moon is just the right size in our sky to obscure the moon... just. As the sun became bigger on our sky, it would still stick out a bit when the moon crossed it (this will happen anyway, as the moon is slowly receding from the earth due to our inability to hold such a large object in our gravity field). In conlcusion, if you ever find a button with "move the earth slightly closer to the sun", don't press it. Even if you live in Siberia. Of course, if we moved it closer, we would all die from crop and water failure and lack of animals surviving. And heat stroke.It won't let me add a bio for some reason, so let me tell you global warming is doing this to an extent already. It is 35 degrees (95 for Americans) here, in mid spring. Yeah.
EARTH SPINNING ON AXIS HELP!!!!!!!!!!?
D) - Technically the North Start (Polaris) will not move since it is line (almost) with the axis of roation of the Earth. Other stars near the North Star will not rise and set because they are not far enough awy from the axis of roatation to be blocked by the Earth's curvature (this also applies in the Souther Hemisphere whene there is no equivalent "South Star.") Thus, not all stars will rise and set. The Sun and moon are far enough off the axis of rotation so that they will be blocked visually by the Earth's curvature.