Is the Earth getting heavier or lighter?

The Earth draws dozens of tons of dust from the universe every day, so is the blue planet getting heavier?

The answer is no. Let's find out why.

Rotting vegetation crumbles throughout the planet, but not all places are equal. Wind and rain erode the land over time. Even the leaves, the accumulated vegetation (peat, deltas) do not make the Earth heavier.

Picture 1 of Is the Earth getting heavier or lighter?
Is the Earth getting heavier or lighter?(Photo: New York Times).

Next, trees are formed from air and water. Water comes from rain and the ground. Carbonic is a naturally occurring gas that is absorbed by trees, combined with water and light to photosynthesize to produce carbohydrates.

None of these processes changes the size of the Earth. Matter does not appear or disappear, they are moving from place to place.

Picture 2 of Is the Earth getting heavier or lighter?
Where the Earth goes, dust is sucked there.(Photo: New York Times).

However, the mass of the Earth is not completely the same. The space around the atmosphere is dusty, they are debris from asteroids, comet tails and ionized fly from the Sun. When our planet flies past that dust layer, gravity will suck them.

After being sucked, dust particles fly into the atmosphere, hovering before lying on the surface of the Earth. Every day, the Earth receives about 43 tons of dust from other planets, sometimes large blocks of meteorites. They cling to everything, including your clothes.

However, 43 tons is nothing compared to the mass of the Earth (5,972,2x10 ^ 17 tons).

Picture 3 of Is the Earth getting heavier or lighter?
Is the Earth getting worse by vacuuming space?(Photo: New York Times).

Moreover, despite receiving daily space dust, the Earth is actually losing mass due to atmospheric leaks. Gravity keeps air around the Earth, but lighter gases like hydrogen and helium are constantly being flung out.

The loss of gas is also sufficient to reduce the weight of the Earth by hundreds of tons per day, significantly more than the amount collected from dust. Therefore, it is possible to view the Earth's mass getting lighter and lighter.

So when will Earth's mass be zero? Do not worry because at the current rate, it takes millions of years for our planet to evaporate, millions of times longer than the expected life of the Sun.

  1. How much does the Earth weigh and how does it weigh?
  2. Gravity, gravity and things we still think wrong