Star Trek

We know that all planets and spacial bodies generate gravity, and each spacial bodies gravity effects other spacial bodies.

This can be likened to people of varrying muscle strength pushing against each other in an elevator. Everyone in the elevator is pushing against someone else to where all of energy being exerted is transferred through everyon thus creating a single gravity field from many single gravity sources.

This model would represent the Sol System.

Now lets say that one person is leaning against the door to the elevator and someone opens the door. Mars exploding would represent the person leaning on the door and when the door is opened they fall out of the elevator and onto the floor, thus breaking the energetic bound of pressure being transferred to the rest of the group or the planets. If Mars exploded, would this collapse of gravity in the solar system be enough to cause a catastrophic de-orbit of the rest of the planets?

By this I mean since Mars is placing a certain amount of force against the rest of the planets while at the same time it is pulling the planets to it, the loss of Mars in the gravity well of the solar system would cause the other planets to have to react to the loss.

The question is would the planets destablize and spin off into space or into each other? The sun wouldnt be affected as it is the largest gravitated body in the solar system.

Quote (dryson @ April 25 2009, 7:47 pm)

We know that all planets and spacial bodies generate gravity, and each spacial bodies gravity effects other spacial bodies. This can be likened to people of varrying muscle strength pushing against each other in an elevator. Everyone in the elevator is pushing against someone else to where all of energy being exerted is transferred through everyon thus creating a single gravity field from many single gravity sources. This model would represent the Sol System. Now lets say that one person is leaning against the door to the elevator and someone opens the door. Mars exploding would represent the person leaning on the door and when the door is opened they fall out of the elevator and onto the floor, thus breaking the energetic bound of pressure being transferred to the rest of the group or the planets. If Mars exploded, would this collapse of gravity in the solar system be enough to cause a catastrophic de-orbit of the rest of the planets? By this I mean since Mars is placing a certain amount of force against the rest of the planets while at the same time it is pulling the planets to it, the loss of Mars in the gravity well of the solar system would cause the other planets to have to react to the loss. The question is would the planets destablize and spin off into space or into each other? The sun wouldnt be affected as it is the largest gravitated body in the solar system.

Why the hell would Mars ever explode??

I think he's thinking of a situation like The Wrath Of Khan, where Ceti Alpha VI exploded and throwing off the weather system of Ceti Alpha V.

I think Mars is too far and too small to affect Earth directly. Now if Jupiter were to explode, given it's size, would cause a solar system wide failure. Remember gravity is directly proportional to mass, so the bigger the planet, the more the effect.

Quote

I think he's thinking of a situation like The Wrath Of Khan, where Ceti Alpha VI exploded and throwing off the weather system of Ceti Alpha V. I think Mars is too far and too small to affect Earth directly. Now if Jupiter were to explode, given it's size, would cause a solar system wide failure. Remember gravity is directly proportional to mass, so the bigger the planet, the more the effect.

Well maybe not explode, but if lets say a very large asteroid struck Mars and destroyed it. Although Mars is of less mass then Jupiter it is still nonetheless part of the gravitational field that keeps the other 8 planets, and yes I still consider Pluto to be planet regardless of what popular notions think, in an stable orbit around the sun. With Mars gone there would be a void in the push and pull exerted by the other planets against each other and back upon one another, it would be the same as a 15000 gallon tank of water sitting upon an empty 1000 gallon tank. You shoot the larger tank creating a hole in the tank where the water would escape and would occupy the 500 gallon tank. The 500 gallon tank would be the loss of the Martian gravity field, the water occupy the 500 gallon tank would be the planets in a stable orbit and the 15000 gallon tank would be the stable gravitational field of the solar system.

UNless it was a real glancing collision with another large body, wouldnt the collision simply devastate the planet and then over time it would re-integrate with any remaining body of the colliding object?

In another view, even if Mars did fall apart and crumble, its mass and therefore its gravity would still remain for a period of time until it was dispersed, no?

While it does have push-pull effect, being that its relatively small, less than half the mass of the earth and barely able to keeps its two small moons, I would imagine that (aside from the thousands of new comets that will be born from the rubble) the gravitational push-pull delta would be minimal....we're far more affected by the moon than we are from Mars.

Quote (Admiral_JTK @ April 26 2009, 3:27 pm)

UNless it was a real glancing collision with another large body, wouldnt the collision simply devastate the planet and then over time it would re-integrate with any remaining body of the colliding object? In another view, even if Mars did fall apart and crumble, its mass and therefore its gravity would still remain for a period of time until it was dispersed, no? While it does have push-pull effect, being that its relatively small, less than half the mass of the earth and barely able to keeps its two small moons, I would imagine that (aside from the thousands of new comets that will be born from the rubble) the gravitational push-pull delta would be minimal....we're far more affected by the moon than we are from Mars.

if mars exploded what happen depends on the force of the explosion.

If the force is not great enought for the pieces to obtain escape velocity, the pieces would cluster together.
The explosion would not effect the rest of the solar system.

The force needed to blow apart mars in a way for the pieces to obtain escape velocity would be beyond belief, the binding energy for Mar due to gravity would be around 2 x10 to 32 joules...

This is around the energy output of the sun for about a million seconds....

So if you had an explosion of that scale, you have alot more to worry about than the orbits of the rest of the planet changing..