If a very large object struck 1 of the other planets, could it affect Earth's orbit?

[falgiano]

i don't know why this popped into my head this morning.

i've read lots of articles about what might happen if a large asteroid were to strike earth, and a BAUT podcast that speculated that our own moon may have been formed by a collision with another large body that knocked the future moon chunks into orbit around Earth.

BUT, for some reason today i'm wondering what would happen if an extremely large asteroid struck one of the other planets, like maybe Venus or Mars. could either planet's orbit be significantly disturbed? and if so, could it in turn significantly affect Earth's orbit?

[Noclevername]

It would have to be a very large body to disturb a planet's orbit so signifigantly that it has a major impact on our orbit. No asteroid in the Solar System with a planet-crossing orbit is that big.

[antoniseb]

If you are writing a script for a SciFi channel movie, and are looking for a very unlikely (but possible) scenario, you could imagine that a dwarf galaxy that is passing through (or merging with) the Milky Way has a Jupiter-mass rogue planet that hits Jupiter head-on at 200 Km/sec, there would be a huge release of energy, and gaseous debris, and the center of mass of the pair would rapidly leave the solar system.

Aside from the brief energy release, the impact on Earth's orbit would be that the advance of our perihelion would slow down from the current once around the Sun every thousand centuries to something maybe three to thirty times slower.

[Amber Robot]

If you are writing a script for a SciFi channel movie...

...the advance of our perihelion would slow down from the current once around the Sun every thousand centuries to something maybe three to thirty times slower.

Now that sounds like an exciting movie!!

[ozark1]

If you are writing a script for a SciFi channel movie, and are looking for a very unlikely (but possible) scenario, you could imagine that a dwarf galaxy that is passing through (or merging with) the Milky Way has a Jupiter-mass rogue planet that hits Jupiter head-on at 200 Km/sec, there would be a huge release of energy, and gaseous debris, and the center of mass of the pair would rapidly leave the solar system.

Aside from the brief energy release, the impact on Earth's orbit would be that the advance of our perihelion would slow down from the current once around the Sun every thousand centuries to something maybe three to thirty times slower.

Antoniseb - just to emphasise that the unlikely bit is the planet on planet collision. There are two dwarf galaxies merging with the Milky Way at the moment anyway (and more to come).

A better event would be a supercloud of cold gas coming down from above the plane of the galaxy and hitting an arm. The last time this happened (ca 50million years ago) it created a ring structure some 3000 light years across and triggered the formation of just about all the bright stars we can see. The energy requirement is in excess of 3 x 10^52 ergs - 30 type II supernovae or 1 hypernova. No one knows whether this was a big explosion or a more gentle evolution - whatever, it is the single biggest event in the last 100 million years.

[triclon]

It would have little effect on Earth's orbit unless mars or venus were to come fly by the earth after they get hit. Jupiter was knocked full of holes by a comet but that had little effect on anything here.

[Sticks]

It would have little effect on Earth's orbit unless mars or venus were to come fly by the earth after they get hit. Jupiter was knocked full of holes by a comet but that had little effect on anything here.

That was Shoemaker Levy Nine, was it not