• lad@programming.dev
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    5 months ago

    If it just lost momentum, it would fall onto the sun, but it would take about 29 years to fall, meaning it most likely fell into another planet possibly derailing it, too, and so on. And this doesn’t consider that its gravitation would likely start affecting orbits long before it actually hits anything

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      Your forget that the sun isnt stationary. Our whole solar system would slowly move away from anything truly stationary while we continue our orbit of the milky way. It would take a good while but after a few years neptune would be pretty far from the sun. If it got stopped while in the path of the sun tho, it might just get run over by the sun and we would all die.

    • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk
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      5 months ago

      Ooi. As you seem to have a hold on the physics.

      My first thought was. If a planet the size and location of neptune just vanished.

      What effects would that have on the rest of the solar system. Given Pluto was found due to its effect on neptune I think. And this is a relatively small mass on a larger one.

      I’d be very interested to hear opinions on what the sudden disappearance of a planet would do.

      Just to put everyone’s mind at rest. I am not an evil scientist working on quantum teleportation.

      That said. Feel free to consider other planets. … such as jupiter. ;)

      • lad@programming.dev
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        5 months ago

        Not sure if that would be as simple as estimating the falling time. Most likely, it will change the revolution period of other planets, but my guess is that nothing dramatic is going to happen. Would love to see a simulation of that, of course ❤️

        • lost_faith@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          Check out Universe Sandbox on steam. Open the Sol system and delete a planet, change all the settings add black holes

          • lad@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            Well, I tried to remove Neptune in Universe Sandbox, it did nothing (as expected, tbf). I tried to remove all the planets except the Earth, and it spilled moons all over the solar system, but none even hit the Earth in a hundred years of simulation. Earth seemed to go slightly faster on the orbit (very slightly, though)

            The sandbox looks pretty meditative, but also seems like it could do as a good education supplement, thanks for the hint

            • lost_faith@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              Yeah, I normally used it to play with the gravity of the sun or the planets. It is a free sim but with what I was doing it was fun to watch the planets fly out of the system.

      • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        You’d need to specify a reference frame, as there is no universal “zero point”. Probably the most sensible choice would be the CMB rest frame though.

        • Kowowow@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          That sounds overly complicated I just want to not move, we have an estimate on how fast everything is moving so why not just remove that plus the expansion of the universe to have it hold still

        • lad@programming.dev
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          5 months ago

          Don’t know, with the context of the solar system and the planets sun’s reference frame looked more sensible. Stopping in the CMB frame may have been more spectacular, true