Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Physics Forum 3D Pic: of Ice on Mars

Good material for a sci-fi story, but it may not always be so far-fetched.

You may know that our moon and the Earth's rotation period are believed to have resulted from just such an impact:

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/17802

The energy required to achieve such an objective would be enormous, right? (are we talking Type I again?) Maybe it would be equally possible to move Venus to Earth orbit but on the opposite side of the sun (is that called superior conjunction?). That might ensure that whatever processes lead to the current state of Venus would be less likely to recur.

I am aware of the theory of an asteroid a little smaller than Mars striking Earth and adding water and a spin on this planet and that is sort of what I am basing the idea of my story on, but I had no intention of trying to move Venus' orbit because I think I read somewhere that if Earth were in Venus' orbit the planet would only be in average 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer and if we were in Mars’ path of orbit we would be 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. The little piece of information I read which got me thinking was that on a web site it said that Venus was a dead planet meaning it had no magnetic field and it said that the theory was that the only reason Venus lacked a magnetic field was because of its very slow reverse orbit. The web site said that it is possible that if a spin were added to Venus, the iron core which is already there could begin to make a magnetic field. From that I am planning on taking literary license. Thank you for the link.