How much matter can Earth hold?

[rodrunner79]

How much mass can the earth have? Or how much matter can it hold? I was reading an article about meteors, asteroids, and comets and this question popped up because the article said that about 25,000,000 meteorites enter the Earth atmosphere. If that's true, that's a lot of dust. So how much can Earth hold?

 

[Saiph]

there is no limit.<br /><br />If it accretes mass, it becomes more massive. If it gains enough mass, gas will stop escaping, and the earth would become a gas giant (needs to be ~50x more massive though...so it ain't gonna happen). Gains more, and it's a star.<br /><br />There is no "limit". <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>