Everyone knows Earth revolves around the Sun and also about its own axis but what if any of these two spinning motions stop?
I was doing some rotating stuff with a tennis ball and came up with this idea, what will happen if Earth stops revolving about its own axis? Little time later after figuring out what will happen I started to think what'll happen if Earth stops rotating around sun?
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Well, this is not going to happen any time soon but still like me maybe you are interested in answers too.
Earth stops rotating about its own axis
If Earth stops rotating about its own axis we'll get days and nights equal to half year (6 months) each. So, sun will cook the same side of Earth for half year and leave it cold for other half (because it is still revolving around the sun). I know it seems strange but it is not only strange thing that will happen. Earth will get half year of day and half year of night if it slowly stops down its rotation on its own axis.
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If Earth suddenly stops, there'll be nothing left on its surface. Earth revolves about its axis with a speed of 1670 km/h (at equator). If it stops rotating suddenly, everything on Earth's surface will still be in motion and will try to move outwards. Things will not move out of the Earth to space because escape velocity (11.2 km/s or 40,320 km/h) is far greater than Earth's rotational speed. Speed of rotation of Earth is not same at different places. You can calculate speed of rotation by taking cosine of your latitude and then by multiplying it with 1670.
Cosθ x 1670, where θ = latitude of your location
result will be in km/h
It is believed that magnetic effect of the earth depends on its rotation about its axis. If Earth stops rotating so will be the magnetic field (I'll try to explain what will happen if Earth loses its magnetic field in some other post).
Earth stops rotating around the Sun
Sun is massive and has massive gravity. Gravity of the Sun does not let Earth move away from it and the Earth is moving sideways with velocity of 108,000 km/h or 30 km/s around the Sun. It is velocity of Earth which is keeping it from falling into Sun. If Earth stops rotating around the Sun, Earth would be pulled into it.
Let me know if I'm missing something.
