The Earth is getting lighter when it disappears

It looks like the subject of a catastrophic film: a researcher in a remote place of the world, renowned for his sui generis theories but at the same time brilliant (and therefore misunderstood), realizes that the Earth is losing a little too much weight. Is it a threat to humanity? Scientists believe so.

We have exercised our imaginations with dangers from any subject or direction. From the galaxy, from ourselves (a war, climate change), from nature (a pandemic). But who would have ever imagined having to worry about what is happening right under our feet?

How much do we have to worry about the Earth losing weight

Fortunately the situation is not dramatic. Rather. True, the Earth is losing weight, but there is no need to pack up and move elsewhere.

First of all some figures. The balloon weight and seems to 5,97 billions of trillions of tons. A figure which, however, is not stable, but continues to suffer variations (even if small in proportion to the size of the starting number). These are slow and unnoticeable processes, but still ongoing. Even at this very moment.

According to the numerous researches that have analyzed the variations in the earth’s mass, our planet accumulates meteor dust and space debris but loses hydrogen. On average, space debris and meteor dust acquired is estimated to amount to annually 40mila tons. On the contrary, dispersed hydrogen holds true 95mil tons.

These two phenomena are also accompanied by others. Both to be included in the “loss” chapter, concerning the mass of our home planet. Specifically, it is the loss of helium, which is valid every year 1600 tons, and the radioactive decay of the nucleus, equal to 160 tons every 365 days.

The Earth will disappear. But when?

By compensating for these and other factors that contribute to the variation in land mass, we arrive at one net loss of 50 thousand tons every year. Considering that there are 5.97 billion trillion tons to be eroded, it is natural that the process will be very, very long. And yet, according to some scientists, it could be the reason for the thinning of our home in the galaxy to the point of decreeing its definitive disappearance: between 120 thousand trillion years.

Other more or less worrying phenomena include the disappearance of oxygen from the oceans and earthquakes capable of lasting decades.

Giuseppe Giordano

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