Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday
on Twitter As you probably know, the Earth is rotating on its
axis. This gives us day and night. Of course it’s impossible,
but what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning? Remember,
this isn’t possible, it can’t happen, so don’t worry. Everything
would be launched in a ballistic trajectory sideways The first
thing to think about is the momentum of everything on the
surface of the Earth. You’re held down by gravity and you’re
whizzing through space at a rotational velocity of 1,674.4 km/h
(at the equator). You can’t feel it because of momentum. Just
like how you can’t feel that you’re moving in a car going down
the highway. But you feel the effects when you stop, or get into
an accident. And so, if the Earth suddenly stopped spinning,
everything on the surface of the Earth at the equator would
suddenly be be moving at more than 1,600 km/hour sideways. The
escape velocity of Earth is about 40,000 km/hour, so that isn’t
enough to fly off into