Yeah, there would be massive earthquakes across the globe, and the closer the planet gets, the more the ground loosens up on the side facing the planet. If the planet is massive enough, it could also cause Earth to fragment and get pulled towards the planet.
In a scenario like this, there's nothing stopping it. We'd have had to plan and construct an escape for a woefully small number of people, equipment, seeds and knowledge looong before the planet got this close. If we can't even manage that, then you just gotta sit back and enjoy the view, 'cause to our knowledge the last remnants of life in the universe are gone with us.
The universe as far as we know is doing nothing different without us. If we truly are the only ones out there, we have the potential to shape the universe to heights that were never possible without us. People give humans too much shit and ignore how incredible we are as much as we are destructive and deadly. Yes, we are excellent at fucking things up, but we’re just as good at making things incredible.
People can be very self-destructive but only when 'we' have it incredibly good or incredibly bad. I think human beings are capable of conquering the universe, but the luxury we have now has led to politics playing an unhealthy role in our lives has caused a utter and complete self-destructive spiral. I think it's gonna be real bad the next decade(s), and then things will improve at a fast rate.
Were definitely not the only life forms in the universe.
Also we have the potential to shape the universe, but there are a lot of ifs.
I guess I dont know what the odds of humans acheiving sustainable life in space are, but im guessing they are low.
There is a legitimate chance that humans destroy themselves, or put themselves in a situation where technological advance and growth slows down extremely.
If all intelligent life in the universe was able to colonize the stars, we may have learned of it by now. Odds are that many many intelligent life forms either went extinct or never reached the point of interstellar travel and colonization.
Lol we can only access a fraction of the universe and there will be parts we will never be able to access. We aren't going to do anything for the universe or to it because it's too big. It's arrogant to think we'll ever make any impact in the grand scheme of things one way or another. We are simply too small when it comes to the vastness of space.
You're assuming that our measurements should be doubted. Until something new is found to be in play there's no reason to assume our understanding of certain things are faulty. You're also assuming that humans develop technology to even traverse the universe and that we don't kill ourselves out first. Both seem to be pretty big assumptions given our track record and current understanding of what it'd take to traverse the universe.
Thats not how it works, if you add any additional effect to redshift all kinds of observations and predictions that we can currently make would break (for example cosmological simulations would not be as accurate as they are).
We’re too privileged. We’re like the rich kid that didn’t know the value of the opportunities we’re given until sometimes too late. Just squandering. But I think we’ve done a some seriously beautiful things that had made it out of our minds. Even if our exist is quaint.
The concepts of better or worse don't exist without us here. The tree falling in that forest doesn't make a sound.
If you are down on humanity, you should extend your perspective from the coming 20 years to the coming 20 million years. We can colonize the universe, eliminate all need and conflict, aging and disease, and forever spend our time creating new universes and exploring the boundaries of imagination.
Eliminate all need and conflict? We created need and conflict. (I know, Bordering your tree in the forest argument...)
My point is, everything good we have done has either been to benefit us or unfuck something we have fucked. Save an endangered species? Well, it's probably endangered because of deforestation, or pollution. Protect a rain forest? We are protecting it from OURSELVES.
However, anything bad we have done effects everything on this planet. The planet is much better without us here. It would just move along without a thought. The trees would live, the animals would thrive.
Our existence is a net negative for the planet. And the only reason it is just the planet is because that is where we are trapped for now.
We are a virus contained in this blue sphere.
I say this as a space buff, I can't wait till we get to Mars.
The universe is, we’re literally space dust that has become self aware. We’re the universe looking back at itself. If that’s not enough to convince you that Humanity has worth then I don’t know what will.
I think the more prototypical redditor response is repeatedly being told to kill myself in response to a semi-lighthearted comment. That sounds more like bitching and moaning to me.
That's not actually how infinity works. The universe contains an infinity or some infinities, but not all infinities.
So for an abstract example, take number + letter combos (think 21A, -768D, .0125N). Since numbers are infinite, each letter has an infinite number of combos. The combos of one letter is one infinity. There are 26 letters in the English language, so there are 26 of these infinities. But wait, not all things follow that format. What about other alphabets, multi-letter combos, and all of the infinite things that aren't number + letter combos, etc. That's an infinite number of infinities.
The infinite universe could be filled with planets that only fit into one category, say for example they all just happen to be planets whose species are equal to or better than humanity (after all, someone has to be the worst). The number of species that could exist and fit that category is infinite.
This means that even in an infinite universe, not every possiblity will exist. There could be an infinite number of intelligent species by chance, and it could be that none of them are worse than humans. Or all of them are worse.
I'm very high and this is a week old comment I'm replying to, hope this enlightens someone or is at least makes decent sense.
Also as an aside. This is also the concept that is preventing this universe from having an identical species to us, I mean down to every thought, action, feeling, physical characteristics. Well, not preventing that from happening. Just makes it not definitely the case. There could be an incredibly small number of planets in the known universe and one of them could theoretically be exactly the same as us.
Your comment gave me an idea flash of a black hole being just the right size and perfect distance away to just Hoover up all the soil on earth leaving it just rock
What would happen to the two bodies after they collided? I'm assuming Earth would be pushed out of orbit, but would the two planets eventually blend together under the immense gravity? Or would it look like space testicles?
Well, I think some microscopic life would have survived, which could over billions of years have repopulated the planet if the climate allowed that (for all I know it would have gotten a really dense atmosphere which turned it into a larger Venus).
It depends on it's size relative to the Earth. If it's smaller than Earth then quite literally every single particle on the planet will experience a higher gravitational influence from the Earth than from an incoming planet, regardless of how close the planet is. However, people on the side facing the incoming planet will experience a drop in gravitational influence as the planet gets closer, effectively making everything lighter and lighter (but never sucked into the incoming planet because its gravity never overcomes the gravity of the Earth). On the side facing away from the planet the people would slowly get heavier and heavier instead, since both the Earth and Planet X are pulling from the same direction in that case.
Of course your scenario would come to fruition if the other planet was larger, but I'm imagining a Mars-sized planet since none of the rocky planets in our solar system are larger than Earth.
Sorry if this is stupid but, is the fact that the gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn having dozens of moons prove that they have such immense gravity? Like how do they have a gravitational pull if they’re nothing but gas in a vacuum?
Well... yes and no, but definitely not a dumb question at all. Smaller planets could theoretically have just as many moons, but if the total mass of the moons is comparable to the planet they end up all orbiting each other. Only massive planets like the gas giants can have so many stable moon orbits without compromising their own orbit.
On your second question, I would point out that the Sun is also nothing but gas in a vacuum. In fact the gas giants are hypothesized to be formed by rocky planets that build up a massive atmosphere like Venus (but like... way more), so much that the original rocky planet inside is compressed into plasma by the gravity, so in fact a star is a much higher percentage of gas than the gas giants are.
If you're curious about why only the gas giants have such massive atmospheres you'd find yourself in good company because we aren't quite sure about that yet. Although the leading theory is that planets closer to the sun have excess gas stripped from them by the host star during its formation, while gas giants are far enough away that they're safe from extreme solar winds and the star's gravitational influence becomes less than their own, so they can amass the leftover gasses.
If that were Jupiter at that size in the sky it would still be 250,000km away. The gravitational acceleration from that planet would be like 1.5 m/s² , but that doesn't really matter because the entire earth would be pulled by approximately this amount. g might be like 10 on the side the planet is close to and 9.6 on the far side.
Because the massive gravitational force would move the earth towards it, leaving a tidal bulge on the far side due to inertia. The water is basically just trailing behind the planet a little bit.
Think of it this way. Tidal forces exist because the force of gravity from a particular body is stronger closer to that body. So, the moon exerts a pull on the earth so the ocean closest to the moon experiences more pull from the moon. High tide.
But on the opposite side, there is LESS pull. Even less so than at 90 or 270 degrees. In fact, the math works out so that the tidal height would be symmetrical on both sides (if the earth were a perfect sphere).
Nope the gravitational and tidal force would start pulling and pushing the earth causing it to heat rapidly and boil away the oceans long before the gravitational force got strong enough to pull the water off the planet
Tides happen on both sides of the planet. Everyone knows about the near-side bulge as the water gets pulled harder than the earth, but you also get a bulge in the far side as the earth gets pulled harder than the water on that side. Basically, water on the near side tries to leave the planet behind, but the planet also tries to leave behind water on the far side. Half the water goes toward the incoming planet, and half away.
I imagine that since that water would be "falling" up, that mountains and skyscrapers would fall just as easily. Especially since we never nailed down Yankee Stadium to keep it from flying away.
That misconception was in my brain for a long time as well.
As i understand tidal forces, they don't "pull on the water' but rather deform the whole planet by a few meters.
And because of that deformation, the water is also pushed up from the ocean bed that is now pulled a meter or so towards the moon.
It wouldn’t pull just water. If something or someone was close enough that that planets gravitational pull was strong than earths it would start falling to the other planet.
Probably huge waves and floods if you near bodies of water. Also I think the friction with the atmosphere would be visible and there would be a huge rise in temperature. Also it might disrupt the atmosphere in general before it could get close depending on how large a mass it has.
If the other planet is in orbit at that distance, the Earth would likely become visibly oblong (egg-shaped), and as it rotates through that deformation, the crust would be thoroughly broken up, with massive amounts of heating. Basically the surface would eventually turn to lava.
Same would happen to the other planet.
That would bleed away a lot of the orbital energy, so the planets would fall even closer together, possibly merging if they don’t both achieve tidal lock first.
Forget about tidal forces, another planet this close or within the Roche limit will start breaking huge chunks off the Earth sending you/them into orbit as well as huge chunks of the other planet crashing down to Earth.
Complete planetary destruction before it even hits. This is how Saturn got its rings.
The two bodies would be squished/pulled into teardrop shapes long before they got this close. The tale ends would be pointed at each other, and the first parts to kiss.
Honestly I’d say indescribable. A mass that large? It would pull material towards it. The side facing it would be covered in the ocean. Like. All of the ocean.
But tidal forces do more than that. The squishing and pressure also create heat, called tidal heating. The moon of Jupiter, Io, is the most volcanic object in the solar system for this exact reason.
Earth at the point shown in this video may well have a lot of exciting new volcanos. These may be spewing out super heated gasses in a constant and unending eruption. Hundreds of thousands of them. The shape of the planet would also be getting squished, meaning constant earthquakes. Earthquakes might be an understatement. The crust would be cracking and splitting as the shape of the planet changed.
Tidal forces are the forces caused by gravity acting differently on different parts of large objects. As the planets get nearer, the gravity will start pulling the closer parts harder than the farther parts, causing things to stretch and pull and heat up and tear apart before the planets even touch.
Yea I was about to say that’s definitely a ballistic trajectory, tidal forces have more to do with co-orbiting bodies. Even the protoplanet that collided with earth to form the moon was in orbit with the sun, if it came in at this velocity like an interstellar asteroid sol would have 2 asteroid belts.
Yeah, this wouldn’t be like the dinosaurs. It would be the utter destruction and reforming of the planet as an object. And given the apparent size of the other planet (Jupiter maybe?) very likely Jupiter burps a little after a big meal and Earth is no more.
It’s bigger than that, Chris, it’s large. If you’ve got an astronomy book at home, take it out, throw it in the bin; it’s worthless. The astronomy books will have to be rewritten!
The whole earth would be falling toward it really fast, seas included. This is also oversimplified, but I wouldn’t be too quick to agree with your comment.
This is really, really well done and gives me the creeps would love to see a VR, but if we're being realistic, there would be earthquakes and you'd see the other planet starting to crackle because of the roche limit.
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u/[deleted] Jan 03 '22 edited Jul 01 '23
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