Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The earth continues to spin like a top continuously and never stops, but what if the planet suddenly stops spinning. If the Earth’s rotation stopped, then the angular momentum of every object on Earth would tear the surface and the results would be very bad.
“This is just a thought experiment,” said James Zimbelman, Senior Geologist Emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. “There is no force of nature that will stop the Earth from turning, because it has been spinning since it was formed and is quite impressive.”
The Earth makes one complete rotation on its axis every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.09053 seconds. This means land at the equator is moving at a speed of about 1,770 km/h, with rotational speed decreasing to zero at the poles.
If the planet stopped suddenly, the angular momentum imparted to the air, water, and even rocks along the equator would continue to move at this speed of 1,100 mph. The motion would scour the surface and tear it apart and send the shards into the upper atmosphere and outer space.
Angular momentum is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is the product of the moment of inertia (the rotational force required to rotate the mass) and the angular velocity. It’s like a quarterback imparting angular momentum to the ball as he hovers in the air towards the receiver.
“One of the fundamentals of physics is the conservation of angular momentum. As soon as something rotates, you must exert the same force [ke arah yang berlawanan] to stop it spinning,” he said.
According to Zimbelman, the pieces that break off from the surface will regain a few spins as the Earth and its remains continue their journey around the sun. Eventually, the planet’s gravitational pull will pull the halo back with unexpected effects.
“What is [Isaac] Newton found helping us with classical mechanics is that pieces that accumulate and move closer will release some of their own energy, heating everything up,” Zimbelman said.
According to him can be likened to a meteorite streaking across the sky. The remains that end up at the ends of the atmosphere and outer space will be pulled to the surface by the planet’s gravitational pull, and they will release energy upon impact. The constant bombardment of these pieces will melt the crust into a melting ocean. Eventually, the colliding fragments will be reabsorbed into the molten ocean through a process called accretion.
According to Zimbelman, the rapid and destructive transition would also evaporate most of the water on the planet’s surface. While most of this evaporated water is lost, some becomes freshly condensed mineral components, such as olivine.
However, not all fragments will be reabsorbed by accretion. Parts of the planet will be swept away by the moon’s gravitational pull, bombarding nearby satellites and creating more craters on its surface.
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