Being Alone In The Solar System Will Not Be Good For Earth

KEY POINTS

Video explains what would happen if Earth is the only planet in the Solar System
Earth's distance from the Sun could change after the disappearance of planets
Earth will no longer be in a habitable region known as the Goldilocks zone

A video explained that would happen to Earth and its inhabitants if all the planets in the Solar System suddenly disappeared. If this happened, all life on Earth would cease to exist.

The grim topic was covered in a video released by the YouTube channel What if. It illustrated how Earth will be drastically affected if a couple or all of the planets suddenly disappeared from the Solar System.

As explained in the video, the positioning of each planet in the systems has a special purpose. Through the gravitational forces of the different planets, they have been arranged in a way that they can orbit the Sun without hitting one another.

“Take the placement of every single planet,” the narrator of the video explained. “They all have their own little space in the galaxy and that’s not by accident. Our planets work together to keep each other in place.”

However, if all of the planets or even just a few of them suddenly disappeared, the arrangement or positioning of the planets in relation to the Sun would change dramatically. Depending on which planet disappears, Earth could either move away from or closer to the Sun.

“If Mercury and Venus ceased to exist, Earth might drift closer to the Sun,” the video stated. “And if Jupiter or Saturn disappeared, instead if gong closer to the Sun, the Earth might drift further away from it.”

In either scenario, all life on Earth would die as the planet would move away from a habitable region known as the Goldilocks zone. For scientists, the Goldilocks zone is a region that’s not too far or too close to the Sun. This means that the planet within this region is neither too hot nor too cold, which is ideal for life to thrive in.

Unfortunately, if Earth moves away from the Goldilocks zone due to the disappearance of the other large cosmic bodies in the Solar System, the temperature of the planet would change drastically. If Earth moves away from the Sun, it would turn into an ice planet. However, if it moves closer, the planet would have hellish environmental conditions.