IS IT POSSIBLE TO KNOCK EARTH OUT OF ITS ORBIT?

The impact required would be so large that Earth would likely be destroyed. Many astronomers think that around 4.5 billion years ago, when the Solar System was forming, Earth got a ‘big whack’, which resulted in our Moon. At this stage in the Solar System’s evolution, both bodies would have been made mainly of molten material that had not yet solidified. Their iron-rich cores merged, while parts of their outer layers were vaporised and thrown into orbit around Earth. This material coalesced to form our rocky Moon. Earth gained angular momentum, and its orbit may have changed, although only slightly. This impact is likely to have been 100 million times bigger than the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. If a body that size hit today’s mostly solid Earth, we would be blasted to smithereens.