Question

Assume earth’s orbit to be circular and that Thanos has snapped his fingers and decreased the sun’s mass by half for inadequately explained reasons. What orbit does the earth have then? Will the earth escape the solar system?

Answer 1

The rotation of Earth around the Sun is due to the equilibrium of centrepetal and centrifugal forces. The Centrepetal force is the inward force, which pulls the object towards the center of the circle, and centrefugal force is the force which makes the body to escape from the orbit.

If the mass of the the sun is halved, then the centrepetal force is also halved,but the centrefugal force remains the same. So the Earth will escape from its orbit and escapes the Solar system.