Question: Is it possible for the earth to expand?

Susan Cartwright answered on 14 Jun 2015:

The solid body of the Earth flexes a bit in response to the Moon’s gravity, and would expand slightly if its temperature increased, because most materials do expand when heated. The atmosphere would expand on heating more than the solid Earth: Jupiter-like planets that are closer to their star than Jupiter is are quite a lot larger than Jupiter because of this effect. The Sun will get brighter as it evolves, so one would expect that the surface of the Earth will expand slightly over the next few billion years, but it wouldn’t be a really large effect. For the Earth to expand substantially, against its own gravity, you’d basically have to vaporise it. I regard this as not an idea to be encouraged.