What would happen if the moon disappeared?

[Ulysses]

OK science folk, here's a question for you.

I was reading an article about the asteroid that at one point was thought might hit in 2029 (and now they say won't) and it also said that they ruled out a moon impact.

Which got me wondering. What would happen if an asteroid smashed into the moon and let's say it hits in a Deathstar-like manner and completely shatters the moon into tiny pieces, none of which have any significant earth impact. So, the only effect to consider is the fact that there is no longer a moon.

What happens then?

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

hmmmmm....

no tides, darker nights.

also less sexy nights

[West]

All the were-wolves would be cured?

[Non_Comformist]

I wonder what the affect would be on nocternal animals.

[Non_Comformist]

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hmmmmm....

no tides, darker nights.



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Would the nights be darker? The moon doesn't actually create a light source rather it's a result of its placement in relation to the sun. So wouldn't there still be light, perhaps more during the night?

[ArchAngel71857]

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hmmmmm....

no tides, darker nights.

also less sexy nights

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Yes scientists everywhere are scrambling to preserve the sexiness of moonlight.

-AA

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
hmmmmm....

no tides, darker nights.



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Would the nights be darker? The moon doesn't actually create a light source rather it's a result of its placement in relation to the sun. So wouldn't there still be light, perhaps more during the night?

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How could there be more light w/o the moon? The moon reflects the sun's light, thus creating more light on earth. With no moon, when the sun is behind the earth, there would be closer to 0 of the sun's light in the sky.


here is a good link. (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=34830)

[andyfox]

Lazy Moon come out soon
make my poor heart beat warmer
light the way bright as day
for my sweet little charmer

She's to meet me in the lane tonight
if the sky is bright and clear
oh moon dont keep me waiting here tonight
watching and awaiting
heart a palpitatin'
longing for my lady love so dear

Lazy Moon, Lazy Moon
why dont you show your face above the hill
Lazy Moon, Lazy Moon
you can make me happy if you will

When my lady sees your light a peepin'
then I know her promise she'll be keepin'
tell me whats the matter, are you sleepin'
Lazy Moon

[Duke]

1. We don't even consider another moon landing mission.
2. Werewolves stay human forever (and lunatics stay sane).
3. Bear (in the big blue house) needs to find a "goodnight" replacement for Luna.

One thing I don't see mentioned is the magnetic field of the earth, which I think may be affected. Tides and seasons and darker nights are sure changes.

~D

[SomethingClever]

[ QUOTE ]
1. We don't even consider another moon landing mission.
2. Werewolves stay human forever (and lunatics stay sane).
3. Bear (in the big blue house) needs to find a "goodnight" replacement for Luna.

One thing I don't see mentioned is the magnetic field of the earth, which I think may be affected. Tides and seasons and darker nights are sure changes.

~D

[/ QUOTE ]

The planet's climate would be radically affected, because tides have a lot to do with it.

[MelchyBeau]

No Tides, The moon causes tides.
Moon also affects the Earths rotation. Some believe that our earth would completely tilt 90 degrees


Melch

[ClaytonN]

Surfers would get really pissed and find themselves in a life-changing crisis

[TimM]

The debris has to go somewhere. It would probably just continue to orbit the earth, perhaps forming a saturn like ring. Some of it might get jostled around, knocked toward earth, and burn up in the atmosphere. Perhaps the biggest effect on earth would be on any ecosystems that depend on the tide.

One random effect: The precession of Earth's axis would change.

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/teaching/dynamics/precession.html
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/precession.html

It will also affect the slowing of Earth's rotation, and possibly affect geologic activity:

"More than just water is pulled up by tides. Earth's solid self actually stretches, too. And Earth's gravity lifts tides on the Moon, raising relatively small bulges in the seemingly solid satellite. (Similarly, Jupiter's gravity raises tides on its icy moons in the frigid outer region of the solar system, stretching some so dramatically that the action generates enough heat to maintain liquid oceans under their frozen shells, scientists believe.)"

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon_mechanics_0303018.html


See also: http://www.jimloy.com/books/comins.htm

I remember seeing this one in a library once. The chapter "What If a Star Exploded Near the Earth?" was interesting.

[spamuell]

2. Werewolves stay human forever

Unless the moon was destroyed during the middle of a lunar month, then they'd stay werewolves forever. I really hope it doesn't work out that way.

[sfer]

It'd be a bitch figuring out when to celebrate Easter.

[DPCondit]

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Unless the moon was destroyed during the middle of a lunar month, then they'd stay werewolves forever. I really hope it doesn't work out that way.

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The middle of a lunar month? Do you mean on a full moon? That's the middle. Oh never mind, it doesn't matter.

[balkii]

well lets all hope to god it would get rid of womens "lunar" cycles

[bdk3clash]

http://home.houston.rr.com/keycraft/avatars/mooninites.gif
"On the Moon, nerds get their pants pulled down, and they are spanked with Moonrocks."

[CrazyEyez]

Would gravity on earth have more of an effect? That is, do the gravitational pulls of the earth and the moon on each other counteract slightly the effect of gravity? Am I making any sense here, and does anyone know the answer?

[daryn]

gravity on earth would be virtually unchanged.

gravity acts over great distances, but it goes as the inverse of the distance between 2 objects squared. we are close to the earth, and we feel its gravity, and it feels the same from us. the moon is farther away and barely affects us, compared to earth.

[Zeno]

As noted by TimM there would be effects to the solid earth. There are cyclical Earth tides cause by the moon (and the sun) that cause the solid earth to swell etc but are rather small gradational fluctuations. Check out this interesting link Earth Tides and Volcanoes (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/1998/98_05_28.html) .

Many years ago, when I was about the age of El Diablo and my brain still functioned at full capacity, I helped with some research and correlated some earth tide data to volcanic activity. We wrote up an abstract that was published by some lunatics for some whacko science conference or something. I have conveniently forgotten the details.

On another note, the Earth and Moon are almost like tandem planets that orbit the Sun. Thus, if the Moon were to suddenly shatter and 'disappear' then I think the Earth's orbital path around the Sun would be altered, perhaps significantly. Perhaps the earth would also begin to wobble more on its axis (TimM hinted at this also I think) and the combination effect of this would be to thrust the Earth into a loop-tee-lu and we all pitch headlong into the sun and burn to a crisp. Now that would be fun.

-Zeno

Edit: The changing of the earth's axis and/or wobble has at times been conjectured to time somewhat with climate changes and glacial periods. This has never been proven conclusively however and is still just an hypothesis - like the existence of El Diablo.

[Zeno]

The magnetosphere is generated by activity inside the earth itself so the shattering of the Moon would have little to no effect on this physical phenomenon.

-Zeno

More percisely the earth's magnetic field; the magnetoshpere is, properly, just the term for the magnetic field that extends into space.

[wacki]

Not having a moon would devastate certain aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems that depends on the tides/lunar cycle. Many species would go extinct but others would take their place. The biggest problem from this would be the loss of certain medicines.

[wacki]

This is not something that can easily be ignored as the horseshoe crab depends on tides to mate. If we loose the horseshoe crab then we loose our ability to test for endotoxins. Injectable medicines, surgical instruments and fluids, dialysis tubing and many other forms of medical equipment/medicines would be rendered either useless or extremely dangerous to use. Anything that goes into the body has to be pyrogen free. This includes all injectable medicines and mechanical parts and many forms of equipment used for surgery. If the horseshoe crab goes, many humans will die.

The process of testing for pyrogens is called a limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL) assay, and it uses horshoe crab blood to work and results happen in 45 minutes or less. Our next best alternative is to use rabbits. This process kills the rabbit and takes atleast 48 hours to occur. So it is not only slow, but expensive. If a human is sick with gram negative bacteria, the rabbit method will not be quick enough to diagnose the disease and give proper medical treatment.

Aquatic life is very important to medicine, but this is the single most significant factor I can think of right now.

FYI: The horseshoe crab has blue blood! This is due to a copper-pigmented hemocyanin molecule which turns blue upon contact with oxygen much the same way our hemoglobin (iron) molecule turns red. Their blood is truly alien like.

[tolbiny]

"Many species would go extinct but others would take their place."

some others would take their place, but on the whole i think we would lose a vast number of total species. A large amount of marine plant life depends upon minerals which are pulled into the ocean and kept suspended by the tides. With greatly reduced tidal fluctuations (we would still get small ones from the sun) the amount of nutriunts in the water would diminish greatly, so would the amount of plant life-animal life- ect.

[Ray Zee]

almost all life if it survived would change. moon effects too much activity. the whole food chain breaks down. we at the top would last longer but not likely survive in the billions if at all. i cant wait.

[wacki]

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we at the top would last longer but not likely survive in the billions if at all. i cant wait.

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I bet you can't. You'll probably be one of the few that survive. Thanks for the advice on the rifle by the way. I just bought a .308 heavy barreled varmint. I love it!

tolbiny,
You raised a good point and made me start thinking. Much of the ocean is devoid of life due to the lack of iron. If the tides help circulate the iron, then a lack of a moon could very easily cause massive loss of ocean life.

[beerbandit]

ill be able to sleep much better -- you know, without the fear of werewolves and all

cheers

[West]

I think you are seriously overestimating the effect of were-wolves on the food chain.

[Zeno]

Iron yes, but also what about Phosphate (and probably some other minerals also). This is an essential nutrient needed by almost all life forms, plants and animals included.

I remember an article I read long ago about mineral limiting factors, and threshold values needed etc in Ocean life. Very interesting. It becomes very convoluted because there is so much interaction and reactions between not only minerals and water, with each other, but also the factor of sunlight, ocean temperature (limiting what is in solution and thus available) and biological processes.

-Zeno

[tek]

We'd lose many song's with the word moon in them.

Exposing your butt would be ?ing.

Astrology would be f'ed up.

[Jingleheimer]

If an asteroid smashed into the moon and disintegrated it, initially I would think nothing would happen. The center of mass of the moon would stay in roughly the same place (momentum conservation) unless the asteroid were incredibly massive or incredibly fast (both of these are realistic since there was enough energy to kill the moon). If it stays in the same place, gravity on the earth is unchanged, since the center of mass is in the same place, and the total mass unchanged. The scattered pieces of the moon would gives us a bigger source of light at night, but less intense.

Over time, the tidal forces on the moon from the earth would spread the fragments into a ring (angular momentum conservation) and as a result the tides would disappear and the moon would not be a small body in the sky but a band of light. As a result, animals would get lost in the dark, surfers would have to take up snowboarding, and all hell would break loose when women's menstrual cycles start to desync.

[jakethebake]

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What would happen if an asteroid smashed into the moon and let's say it hits in a Deathstar-like manner and completely shatters the moon into tiny pieces, none of which have any significant earth impact.

[/ QUOTE ]
Green cheese everywhere!!! Cool!