Would a large enough ship generate enough gravity to affect earths course?
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I think you need a definition of how much you want it affected as all matter gravitationally affect each other. Also might be a better fit for worldbuilding SE – lijat Sep 26 '18 at 14:36
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1I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because imaginary giant alien spaceships are not related to space exploration. – Organic Marble Sep 26 '18 at 15:50
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This could also be a duplicate to Does launching a device into orbit change earth's orbit? and answers there do a nice job of answering this question. – uhoh Sep 26 '18 at 16:00
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Any spaceship (or other mass) anywhere in the universe will affect Earth's orbit. Just not very much! For instance, a 1 million ton stealth spaceship magically hovering just above the surface of the Earth would accelerate the Earth at about $10^{-15} m s^{-2}$ towards it. This would give a displacement of about 0.5 meters over a year.
Steve Linton
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Except for the fact that it would have to exercise a force on earth that is exactly as strong as the gravitational force but in the oposite direction in order to not fall down. Momentum of the earth / ship system has to remain constant (as far as we know) therefore hovering doesn't work for moving earth. Maybe you could hover by shooting neutrions through earth? That might result in some net acceleration. – Christoph Sep 26 '18 at 14:58
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