Einstein's Gravity Protects Earth [Celestial Mechanics Porn]

Sky and Telescope Website ^ | July 1, 2009 | Johannes Hirn

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If the universe obeyed Newton's laws of gravity, there would be about a 60% chance that Mercury would head toward the Sun or Venus during the Sun’s lifetime. But according to a new study, corrections to Newton's laws using Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity) lower these chances to about 1%. That’s good news, because if Mercury had a near miss with Venus or the Sun, it could wreak havoc on Earth.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Artist's concept of a collision between Venus and Earth.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

You’re off the hook, at least for now.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If you follow this link, you may have to go to confession.

http://www.imcce.fr/Equipes/ASD/person/Laskar/jxl_collision.html

[sig226]

It looks like a little cheeseburger.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Sounds like you had a fun Fourth of July.

[mountainlion]

There are over 150 things like this that protect the Earth. Some calculate that the possibility of another planet like Earth exceeds the number of known star systems. Einstein's Gravity, No its Gods gravity.

[Daffynition]

TA DA!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Actually, the text of the article makes the more modest claim that thanks to General Relavitity (he got the fourth star in 1916) we don’t have to worry quite so much. Although, I wasn’t really terribly concerned about what was going to happen in 100 million years, one way or the other.

[Oldpuppymax]

In fewer than 4 billion years, our sun will have become a red giant, it’s massive size engulfing every bit of space extending beyond the present orbit of Mars. But don’t worry...Al Gore will have a program for this very soon.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Bush’s fault!!!

0bama: “I inherited this mess!”

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

How does that effect the Perpetual Care contract I have with the cemetery?

[CodeToad]

Or a watermelon spitting out its seeds all at once.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Lonesome in Massachussets.

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Lonesome in Massachussets.

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[Eaker]

Einstein's Gravity Protects Earth

Shouldn't you be thanking Einstein instead?

[SunkenCiv]

Well, the man is dead.

[SuperLuminal]

Whew! I’ve been worried about that for a long time.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Billions of years?

[Eaker]

Sorry, I didn’t know.

I must have missed it with all the Jackson hoopla.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The post was to Freeper Poincare.

The French physicist/mathematician Poincare proved in the late nineteenth century that under Newtonian mechanics no three or more body dynamical system was stable, there was always the possibility of the “butterfly effect”. A butterfly flapping its wings will perturb the earth's orbit in ways that will be magified trillions and trillions of times in 100 million years. The tiniest uncertainty in the current state of the bodies in the solar system means that predictions more than a few million years into future are fraught with uncertainty.