We live on a perfectly functioning planet but don't even think about how fragile our
world is.
Should you change one element and the entire system stops properly operating.
The life that we're so used to would no longer be the same.
If this happens, most living organisms on our planet would disappear.
And all this is possible if our blue dot just stops spinning.
But is this even possible?
What would happen exactly?
And how could this threaten humanity as species?
[INTRO]
The Earth makes a revolution around the Sun once a year or once in 365.2425 days.
But also, our planet rotates around its axis, making one revolution in 23 hours 56 minutes,
and 4 seconds.
Let's start with the rotation around our star.
Stopping this rotation would mean a definite death for all mankind.
It's this force that keeps the Earth in orbit and holds back the mighty gravity of our star
to keep us from falling into it.
This is similar to how speed keeps a circus motorcyclist driving on the walls from falling.
And if a driver hits the brakes, he would crash right down.
So in case our planet stops rotating, it would also rush toward the Sun.
After a while, it would fall into the fiery ocean of the burning plasma.
Just in a matter of seconds, Earth would evaporate and disintegrate into atoms.
But how could this happen?
The most painless scenario for us is an instant stop of rotation.
The Earth revolves around the Sun at an orbital speed of about 107 km/h [66,5 mph] and travels
at a distance of 2.6 million kilometers [1.6 million miles] a day.
So if our planet's rotation stops within a second, the Earth would experience an overload
of more than 3000g!
Everything would instantly be destroyed and turned into dust.
Suddenly, human beings would achieve a speed of 107,000 km/h or almost 30 km/s [18.6 m/s].
The first cosmic velocity or the speed at which the body becomes a satellite of our
planet and does not fall on it is roughly 7.9 km/s [4.9 m/s].
At that speed, unless you bump into something along the way, you’d become an astronaut
and find yourself in orbit.
But that is just the first cosmic velocity.
The second cosmic velocity or escape velocity is 11.2 km/s [6.9 m/s].
At this speed, the body leaves the Earth forever.
This is the speed that the Apollo spacecraft had to gain to reach the Moon.
This fast, we would all travel into the depths of space and revolve around the sun in the
form of space debris.
The planet itself would not survive.
Under the influence of such a monstrous overload, Earth would break into many pieces.
Its core would be exposed and its magma would splash out right into the cosmos.
The spectacle would be quite bewitching in its horror, but there would be nobody to witness
it.
Still, this is the best scenario for us.
What could even be worse?
It would be a lot worse if the slowdown happens smoothly, without fatal overloads for the
human body.
In this case, the planet would rush towards the Sun along the ballistic curve.
It would be reminiscent of a spacecraft deorbiting.
As we approach our star, the temperature on the planet will constantly rise.
At first, it would be hot, then very hot, finally, it'll become unbearable.
At a distance of about 70 million km [43.5 million miles] from the Sun, the temperature
on the Earth's surface would exceed 212°F [100°C].
But that is just the beginning.
People that would stay in underground bunkers equipped with cooling systems would last the
longest.
But when the temperature rises to 1000 degrees, nobody would survive.
Because of the enormous force of gravity, at a distance of a couple of million kilometers
from the Sun, our planet would be torn to pieces and collapse into a fiery ocean.
Our star would become a global crematorium.
This is the finale that awaits mankind if the Earth stops rotating around the Sun.
But what would happen if our home stops rotating around its axis instead?
If this happens quick enough, the results would be somewhat similar.
Even though things wouldn't probably be turned into fine dust, they'd still be broken apart
into fragments.
At the equator, Earth's rotation speed is about 1670 km/h [1035 mph].
So the overload would be approximately 47g.
And as you go deeper or move toward the poles, the overload would decrease.
The planet itself is unlikely to collapse, but multiple earthquakes would occur in many
parts of the world.
For the Earth, such an event would be felt as a blow of a monstrous force.
Because 1670 km/h is only 0.46 km/s, you wouldn't fly to orbit.
At this speed, you'd be thrown along the course of the Earth's rotation, in a western direction.
And it's highly unlikely anyone would survive the landing.
People who live closer to the North Pole, scientists in Antarctica, and the Arctic would
have the best chance of survival.
No building can withstand 47g.
Well, except for perhaps the Antarctic and Arctic stations, where overloads wouldn’t
be so intense.
In addition to earthquakes, severe tsunamis would take place all across the globe.
This would be a lot more terrible than it is shown in any blockbuster.
After all, the entire world ocean would begin to move.
This is 1 billion 338 million cubic kilometers of water!
There would be kilometer-high waves.
So it’s unlikely that even human beings close to the poles could survive.
People on airplanes, the moment the Earth stops, would not survive either.
All planes that were flying from east to west, would sharply rush forward with an acceleration
of 47g, burst, and crumble from such an overload.
And planes that flew in a different direction would be dragged sharply to the west.
Either sideways or tail first, but all with the same outcome - almost an instantaneous
destruction.
The only way humanity would have a chance of survival is if the deceleration of the
Earth's rotation is slow.
At a certain value of the deceleration, the friction force will even hold a person still
instead of throwing it like a stone out of a catapult.
If this is the case, many buildings would survive, and tsunamis wouldn't cause a global
catastrophe.
But as the dust from the destruction of some buildings settles, people thrown by a sharp
push would rise from the ground.
And it would then be the question of how to survive on a planet that isn't rotating.
Stopping the Earth's orbital rotation is just an abstract assumption.
But a gradual slowdown in the rotation of the planet around its axis is not just possible,
it’s happening right now!
The Earth is constantly slowing down and our days are becoming longer.
Eventually, such a slowdown can result in a single Earth day lasting as long as one
Earth year lasts today.
This would mean a complete stop of rotation.
Similar to the way our Moon faces the Earth, our planet would have one side always facing
the Sun.
We were only able to see the Moon's reverse side once on October 7, 1959, when the Soviet
Luna-3 station photographed it.
So why is the rotation of our planet slowing down?
The reason is tidal forces arising from the gravitational influence of one celestial body
on another.
One example of tidal forces is the ebbs and flows caused by the rotation of the Moon around
the Earth.
Under our satellite's gravitational influence, the points on the surface of our planet that
are closer to the satellite are attracted stronger.
As a result, there's deformation that can be easily spotted on the surface of the water.
This is because, unlike solids, water molecules are less connected to each other.
As the Moon pulls on different parts of the Earth, our planet's water bulges out on the
side closest to our satellite and the side furthest from it.
On a planetary scale, these forces may seem insignificant, but this isn’t the case.
There is a narrow and long bay in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia.
It is called Penzhina Bay.
The height of the tides there reaches 9 m [29.5 ft].
And if the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun line up in a row, they grow to 12.9 m [42.3 ft]
high.
These are the so-called spring tides.
It has been calculated that if a power plant operating on the energy of these tides is
built, its capacity would be 120 GW.
To compare, the United States has a total hydropower capacity of about 80 GW, which
is 1.5 times less.
Such a power plant would be able to produce 1054 TWh of energy per year.
And all that would come from a single place on Earth.
So where does the gigantic amount of energy from tidal forces go?
Friction.
Waves on our planet rise, fall and beat against the shore.
Now, imagine a ball rotating on an axis that rubs against a wall.
What happens to its rotation?
It slows down.
In the same way, Earth is gradually slowing down its rotation.
Also, there are tides caused by the attraction of the Sun.
Our star pulls the Earth 400 times stronger than the Moon.
But the difference in the force of attraction between the surface of the ocean and at its
bottom is less when it comes to the Sun.
As a result, it creates weaker tidal forces.
But they still exist.
Every 100 years, a day on Earth lengthens by 1.5–2 milliseconds.
In 200 million years, a full day will be 25 hours long.
In 5-6 billion years, the Earth's rotation around the Sun and its own axis will match.
Under such circumstances, the effect of the tidal forces would be minimal.
This is because every system in this universe aims at achieving an absolute minimum of energy.
The Earth has synchronized with the Moon in the same way.
And it's not just our planet.
All the satellites of the planets that are relatively close to them, like those near
Mars, Saturn, or Jupiter, are synchronized.
Our Sun has already synchronized Mercury.
The same will happen to the Earth in about 5-6 billion years.
And when it happens, there will be a permanent dayside and a nightside on our planet.
Those who temporarily reside in the Arctic Circle already experience a night for half
of a year, and then a day for the rest of a year.
And they manage to operate just fine.
But it’s only a relatively small area of our planet.
So what if this happens on a global scale?
The heat balance of the planet will change.
Strong winds would start blowing from the sunny, hotter half to the dark and colder
half of the planet.
On the night side, flora will have a very difficult time.
Many plant species will perish.
Only species that can exist with a minimum amount of light and heat would survive.
Entire fields of wheat and other agricultural plants would be gone.
There would be some moss and mold left.
The same will happen with fauna.
But you can't survive on moss and mold only.
So, at least, for the several upcoming years, there will be hunger.
But even this is not the worst.
When the Earth rotates, centrifugal forces flatten it at the poles and create a "hump"
at the equator.
The diameter of the planet there is about 43 km [26.7 miles] larger than it is at the
poles.
Without rotation, the "hump" would disappear and the oceans would flow toward the poles.
The Earth would have one giant continent and two oceans.
Antarctica, Greenland, Canada, Siberia, entire Europe, a part of China, and a half of New
Zealand would go underwater.
Along the equator, up to 30 degrees north and south latitude, plains and mountain ranges
would appear.
This would be a real disaster with millions of victims.
And even this is not the worst.
As the Earth would significantly slow down its rotation from 24 hours to 365 days per
revolution, its magnetic field, consisting mainly of liquid iron, would decrease as well.
Flows would be formed in the Earth's core.
They would rub against each other and become electrified, forming loop currents.
As a result, a system of currents would circulate along a conducting circuit which would induce
a magnetic field that encircles our planet.
The northern lights are a visible result of this process.
We could easily live without the magnificent northern lights, but not without the protection
against solar radiation.
Our magnetic field, weakened by 365 times, wouldn't save us.
So those lucky enough to escape being covered by tsunamis, flooded during the formation
of new oceans and continents, and those surviving the hunger, would still have to live inside
underground caves where radiation cannot reach.
Still, even inside caves, there wouldn't be many places suitable for survival.
People would only be able to live in tiny areas on the border between day and night
sides.
Depending on the hemisphere, there would be eternal dawn or sunset.
And it wouldn't be possible for all human beings to settle down along the entire “favorable
line”.
This is because a large part of the land would be flooded with oceans and you would have
to choose an area with an optimal atmospheric pressure and temperature.
Our descendants would probably know for sure whether life is possible on a planet that
is always facing its star on one side.
There are several planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1, located in the constellation of
Aquarius.
This is just 39.5 light-years from the Sun.
This planetary system was discovered in 2017.
In total, 7 planets have been detected so far, three of which are in the habitable zone.
All three of them are approximately the same size as the Earth and are also rocky.
At the same time, they have average temperatures of 15 [59°F], -22 [7.6°F], and -54 [65.2°F]
degrees Celsius.
The star itself is a red dwarf with a diameter of only 1.1 times the diameter of Jupiter.
TRAPPIST-1 only emits 0.05% of the energy emitted by the Sun.
All the planets there are located very close to the star.
The three planets in the habitable zone make a revolution around their star in 4.6 and
9 days.
The periods of revolution of these planets are identical and are in resonance with each
other.
So these planets are tidally locked, meaning they face their star on one side.
Hopefully, in a couple of centuries, humanity masters their technology and flies to the
stars to find out if life is possible on these planets.
Currently, there's nothing to worry about.
Moreover, before synchronizing with Earth, our star could instead become a red giant
much quicker, increase in size and swallow our planet.
So far, nothing like that threatens us, our children, and even our grandchildren.
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