• Question: What would happen if a planet disappeared?

    Asked by Science Lover to Scott on 17 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Scott Lawrie

      Scott Lawrie answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      It depends which planet ❗

      If Earth disappeared we would go along with it, so that wouldn’t be great 😯

      If Mercury or Venus disappeared it wouldn’t make any difference to us or the rest of the solar system. We’d lose the ‘Morning Star’ of Venus in the sky, though 🙁

      If any of the gas giants went, though – particularly Jupiter – that could have bad consequences. Jupiter is like a massive Space Vacuum Cleaner™️ sucking up most nasty comets and asteroids before they get to us. With Jupiter gone, we’d be at a greater risk of annihilation from a meteor strike! 👿

      I don’t know whether this answer will make you more or less happy, but hopefully it’s worth a vote 😉

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