The Earth is missing 3T tons of mass
2 days ago
- The Earth's total atomic mass is about 3 trillion tons more than its actual mass due to gravitational binding energy.
- Nuclear fission reactions conserve the number of protons and neutrons but lose mass because binding energy reduces the system's total mass, as per E=mc².
- An assembled atom has less mass than its separated components due to the binding energy holding the nucleus together.
- Gravitational binding energy causes Earth to have less mass than its constituent material, with the missing mass being about 3 trillion tons.
- Neutron stars, due to extreme gravity, can lose about 15% of their mass from gravitational binding energy.