WHAT IF THE EARTH WAS TWICE AS BIG? - Space Science
981The Earth is the only planet that humans have ever inhabited or at least we are pretty sure it is. We’re comfortable on this planet because we understand this planet. But what if the Earth suddenly was twice as big?
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The word big means, “larger or of great size”. Size refers to the concept of things having measurements that are relatively greater or lesser than other things along certain dimensions in physical space.
So if the Earth was twice as BIG, we could mean twice as tall or twice as massive, or twice the radius. All of these things mean something different. For example, if the earth were to double in width, the surface area would be four times greater and the mass would be eight times greater, increasing the gravitational acceleration and the “weight” of everything by two. The increased force incurred on the inhabitants of earth would mean everything that stands straight up would have to withstand greater forces and use more energy. Pumping water to the top of building, walking up stairs, growing taller, launching rockets, all would be a lot harder.
So taking this a step further, what if the planet grew twice radially, but the mass did not proportionally increase. So the planet puffed up. In this case, the mass of the planet did not increase, therefore the gravity does not increase, but because we are twice as far from center of mass the effective acceleration or force of gravity would only be 25% as great. In this world, it’s possible the Earth would not be able to hold onto the atmosphere we currently enjoy, which would cause some serious issues. But if any animals could survive on this planet, they would be able to grow to much larger sizes. The square-cube law prevents things from getting too large, in other words, as humans get taller, the volume and weight increase much faster. Reduced gravity wouldn’t bypass this law, but the boundary would be increased due to the reduced forces.
There is one glaring omission we’ve yet to discuss, if the earth suddenly expanded in size over say 10 seconds, everyone on the surface would be accelerated to velocity of 638 km/s (1427 mph) and launched into space. During this time the crust would crack to increase the surface area by four times, swallowing entire cities and releasing molten rock leaving only small islands from the bits of the crust that remain. Basically life on the planet is effectively over. On the bright side, the moon would take up a little bit more of the night sky.
In a lot of ways, it kind of sucks just how dependent we are on the first planet we’ve learned to inhabit. I guess we’re pretty lucky that there are so many planets out there because between temperature, gravity, atmosphere, and toxins, there aren’t a lot of places in the cosmos we could effectively conquer.