• Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Would that wave be that destructive? I can definitely see it screwing up the orbits of Jupiter’s moons, maybe even our own moon, but would it be much worse than a small earthquake?

    The Sun’s gravity at Earth’s distance is only 0.0059m/s². I’m not exactly certain about how the magnetude of a gravity wave relates to the magnetude of the static force, but even if the force fluctuates rapidly at ten times the static force, that’s less than a hundredth of a g; enough to be perceivable but you wouldn’t even loose your balance.

    • nilloc
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      3 months ago

      I wonder if the sudden change in direction would be the bigger problem, as we no longer had the sun to orbit around.

      This is a good question for Randall Monroe, if he hasn’t already addressed it.

      • Rexelpitlum
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        3 months ago

        I thought the same after writing the gravity wave comment. Really not sure what the effects would be and the equations involved are far from intuitive…

        Is Randall doing new What-If stuff? I have only seen old articles on his website recently.