An orbital change for earth?

[OliverTwistofLime]

I’m already over my head as I ask these questions. To knock the earth out of its current orbit, how large would the object have to be? Does it depend on the angle the earth is struck, speed of the object as well as size?

And lastly, could the earth be forced out of its current orbit and stabilize in another orbit where life as we know it would continue to exist?

[scr4]

A small object causes a very small change in orbit. Larger objects cause larger changes in orbit. There is no threshold. Every time a meteor hits the earth the orbit is shifted, though changes are too small to measure. The orbital shift also depends on the speed and direction of the object.

Nobody really knows how far you can move the earth before it becomes uninhabitable. But chances are, the margin is fairly large. Possibly as far as the orbit of Mars.

[Squink]

Here is a method of changing the earth’s orbit that doesn’t involve hitting the planet with rocks:

All that is required is for a large asteroid, about 100 km (62 miles) across, to fly past the Earth transferring some of its orbital energy to our planet. The asteroid would then move out to encounter Jupiter where it would acquire more energy that it could impart to the Earth on a subsequent encounter.