The Impact of the Collision of an Asteroid with Earth on Earth's Orbit

This study investigated the impact of an asteroid on the orbit of the Earth if it collided with the Earth. This study basically used Kepler's laws of planetary motion and created a simulation model of the asteroid's collision with the Earth by coding the numerical Euler method using the Python program. The simulation results showed that the Earth's elliptical orbit changes as the mass of the asteroid increases. When an asteroid weighing about 10% of the Earth's mass collided with the Earth, the eccentricity of the Earth's elliptical orbit changed from 0.063 to 0.302. In the change of the orbit, the perihelion of the Earth approached much closer to the Sun. The perihelion distance was 1, 014 × 10⁸ km, with the Earth's orbit reduced by approximately 31% from the original value in the absence of asteroid collision. These results suggest that asteroid collisions can cause changes in the elliptical orbit of the Earth, as well as changes in distance between the Earth and the Sun, resulting in a change in the survival environment of life on Earth, such as solar radiation. Moreover, two problems related to the orbit of the Earth were investigated. One problem involved changing the position of the planets within the solar system, and then investigating the resulting changes in the orbit of the Earth and the consequent changes in Earth's surface temperature. The other problem involved investigating the most efficient optimal orbit for sending a probe from Earth to Mars. The findings of this study can be used to find planets with the most similar environments to Earth or to predict the environments of unknown planets.