Expert: James Gort - 4/22/2005

Question
have you ever been in space? because i have a question for you. What would happen if the earth stopped revolving around the earth? I mean i know that the earth would get pulled in to the sun because of the gravity but how would the people react what would the government do to protect their people? would they send people in to space to try to stop it? Tell me all about it.

Answer
Hello Bethany,

I have never been in space.

If the Earth stopped revolving around the Sun, the Earth would not go SLOWLY closer to the Sun, but would start moving towards the Sun at about 33,000 miles per hour!  That's how fast the Earth is currently moving in
orbit.  As it got closer to the Sun (which is about 93 million miles away), it would speed up.  So in several weeks, it would crash into the Sun.

Everyone and everything on Earth would die within about two weeks. So people would probably panic, because governments could do nothing to help.  There might be enough time to launch a space shuttle, but if they landed on Mars, they probably could not set up a place to grow food in time. So those space travellers would probably freeze or starve.  

Hope that helps.

Prof. James Gort