• Question: what wolud happen if mars came out of orbit?

    Asked by Chloe c to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      It depends which way it came out of orbit, but it would probably either end up crashing into the Sun if it came out of orbit in that direction, or crashing into Jupiter if it went the other direction.
      Its also possible it could go zipping out of the solar system never to be seen again.
      It really depends how big a push it is given and in what direction.
      However it would need a REALLY big push to move it out of orbit.

    • Photo: Heather Campbell

      Heather Campbell answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      At the end of the suns life it will expand as a red giant, this will effect all the planets! it may well cause the mars to fly out of its orbit, as Julian says it might spiral out and hit saturn, or might get engulfed by the sun.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      It’s really unlikely that Mars would come out of its orbit though, even if it was hit by a massive asteroid. It weighs a lot more than any of the asteroids/comets/bits of space junk that might possibly hit it, so this isn’t really enough of a push to get it off course. Shoemaker Levy 9 was a comet back in 1994 that actually broke apart and collided with Jupiter – and scientists were able to watch it happen through telescopes on Earth! Pretty cool hey? 😀

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