Does my equator look big in this?
Is the Earth getting heavier or lighter? Which tips the scales: meteorites falling from space or gases escaping from our atmosphere?
Scales don鈥檛 come planet-sized, so answering a question from David in Ghana may require some ingenuity, after all, calculating the weight of the Earth is a huge task.
Using a set of weighing scales and a 400 year-old equation, Marnie Chesterton attempts to find out just how much the Earth weighs and is it getting heavier or lighter over time?
But how would a planet gain or lose mass? Which tips the scales: meteorites falling from space or gases constantly escaping from our atmosphere?
And does the answer have any implications for the future of Earth? Could the atmosphere eventually run out?
Contributors:
Anuradha TK, former project director at ISRO
Matt Genge, geologist at Imperial College London
Jon Larsen, researcher at the University of Oslo
Anjali Tripathi, astrophysicist
Ethan Seigel, journalist and astrophysicist
Presented by Marnie Chesterton.
Produced by Caroline Steel for the 91热爆 World Service.
[Image: Earth on scales. Credit: Getty Images]
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The Norwegian jazz musician who found cosmic dust
Duration: 04:25
Broadcasts
- Fri 18 Jun 2021 19:32GMT91热爆 World Service
- Sat 19 Jun 2021 01:32GMT91热爆 World Service Europe and the Middle East
- Sun 20 Jun 2021 01:32GMT91热爆 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Mon 21 Jun 2021 03:32GMT91热爆 World Service Australasia, South Asia & East Asia only
- Mon 21 Jun 2021 04:32GMT91热爆 World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Mon 21 Jun 2021 08:32GMT91热爆 World Service
- Mon 21 Jun 2021 12:32GMT91热爆 World Service except East and Southern Africa, East Asia, South Asia & West and Central Africa
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CrowdScience
Answering your questions about life, Earth and the universe
