Is the Earth getting heavier? [View all]

[n2doc]

DR. DAVE GOLDBERG

Considering that planet Earth is being bombarded with energy from the sun, approximately how much mass does our planet gain from sunlight in say, a million years?

This is a fun question because it connects almost directly (and somewhat surprisingly) with how the Higgs works. We're all familiar with Einstein's great equation, E=mc^2, but the Higgs particle gives mass to others by virtue of the fact that the equation can be inverted:

m=E/c^2

Just as you can get energy out of annihilating mass, you can also create mass from whole cloth by producing energy. If you pour enough energy into the earth in the form of sunbeams, presumably the earth will get more and more massive, right? Wrong, but to understand why, we need a strict accounting of where all of the energy goes.

The Sun is Falling Apart

As you probably know, the sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace. There's no question that the sun is losing mass over time. It radiates at a rate of about about 4x10^26 W. To make that much energy, huge amounts of hydrogen are fused into a huge (but slightly smaller) amount of helium, with a deficit of about 4 billion kilograms every second, or about 370 billion tons a day.

more

http://io9.com/is-the-earth-gaining-weight-512456481

(starts off squirrly, I know, but gets better and more interesting later in the article. )