Science curiosity

This blog post examines the concept of a powerful starship blasting off.

Does it affect the Earth in any way?

Short answer: yes, but almost certainly not in any meaningful way unless the starship is extremely powerful or uses exotic propulsion.

Here’s how it breaks down, in plain science terms:

1. Thrust and the Earth’s motion.

Because of Newton’s third law, a starship pushing off Earth does technically push Earth back a tiny bit.

Earth’s mass is ~6 × 10²⁴ kg.

Even a massive rocket (like Starship or Saturn V) is microscopic by comparison.

Result: Earth’s recoil would be far smaller than the movement caused by ocean waves or earthquakes, completely undetectable.

2. Gravity and mass loss;

When a ship leaves Earth:

Earth loses a bit of mass (the ship + expelled fuel).

This slightly weakens Earth’s gravity.

Reality check:

The change is so small that it wouldn’t alter:

Earth’s orbit,

Tides,

Satellite paths,

Not even with thousands of launches.

3. Atmospheric effects;

Launches do affect the atmosphere locally:

Shockwaves

Heat

Exhaust gases

Ozone disturbance (upper atmosphere).

But: These effects are localized and temporary.

Even frequent modern launches don’t produce global effects.

4. What would cause noticeable effects?

Earth would be affected if the starship:

Used nuclear pulse propulsion near the surface.

Fired engines with planet-scale energy.

Used hypothetical tech like antimatter drives or gravity manipulation.

Took off without a launch pad (direct surface thrust)

In sci-fi terms, this could:

Trigger earthquakes,

Strip atmosphere locally,

Cause measurable changes in Earth’s rotation (still unlikely, but possible).

Bottom line;

A powerful starship launch:

Does affect Earth in theory.

Does not affect Earth in practice.

Earth is simply too massive.

Thank you for reading,

Tim.

#TimRomardBlog