What happens if there is no MOON?

Why do you ask? You aren't planning to do something incredibly inconvenient for the rest of us, are you?

Lost land?...but I got fish. Leave the moon where it is--I doubt that it could be in a better spot.

Tides are beautiful things.

No worry, Mark!

No one can do this "great job" today. But tomorrow people may move the moon orbit according to the human-being wishes.

--- I don't want be a terrorist of the universe. I put this discussion just for the imagination.

It can be a matter of mining asteroids.

It would take an awful lot of energy to destroy the moon. And then, what would one do with its mass? Simply disintegrating it would leave the mass in the earth/ex-moon gravity well, though distributed differently. That would have a lot of side effects. An how would one prevent re-accretion?

Unless so much energy was supplied that it leaves earth orbit. The energy needed to do that would be derived from, oh, say an incoming asteroid of similar size doing a significant speed. What if the asteroid missed the moon by 400,000km and hit earth instead?

Pros? None really.

Leave her alone!

Ask him ..

Wouldn't bother me, I don't use the moon anyway.

Hi Bruce,

It was on Discovery Channel, I think in 1999. Here is a link to the Discovery Channel Store to buy the video.

http://shopping.discovery.com/product-52214.html

Really fascinating to consider the role the moon played in the history of the planet, and the eco systems it supports today. Here is an excerpt from the same website as a synopsis of the video:

What would life on earth be like without the moon? Well, chances are, there wouldn't be any life on earth without the moon. Life – if it had started at all – would still be in the earliest stages of evolution.

Scientists use the latest computer simulations to show how an ancient rogue planet – Orpheus – collided with the earth millions of years ago, producing a sizable chunk of debris that eventually became our moon. If that collision had never occurred, we would live in a very different place. Imagine a moon-less weather report – blizzards over the Sahara, floodwaters swallowing the Pyramids, 90-degree temperatures in Antarctica. As the earth wobbles on its axis – unsecured by the moon's gravitational pull – the polar caps would grow and recede at frightening rates. And without the moon, our planet would spin much faster – meaning four-hour days and searing temperatures.

Worse yet, evidence reveals that we are in fact losing our grip on our lunar friend thanks to the ebb and flow of the oceans' tides. Experts reveal theories for salvaging the moon – including hijacking Europa from Jupiter – and demonstrate how we can prepare ourselves for our eventual life without it.

Now you have me inspired ... I may have to go find the video to watch it again.

Best regards ...

The earth will not be as stable on its axis as it currently is.. !!??

What is the justification for this statement..why should the tilt of the earth's axix suddenly shift?

Confuse a Cat

Del

Hi BruceFlorida,

I have to object:

"A big part of the answer is that the earth is not round"

This is true but there is no connection with the moon.

Any long or flat object (with inertia around rotation axis (z) different from x and y direction) is stable in rotation if disturbed by small torques, any object that has a spherical ellipsoid of inertias is unstable. So the flat earth is more or less stable but where is the influence of moon?

The damping of moons rotation is a tidal effect, only relative rotation is causing tides and thus damping.

The shepherding of Saturn's rings is damping by impacts of the small particles if there is any velocity perpendicular to the ring's plane that lets the particles hit each other.

The effect of the small moonlets inside the rings is still not clear.

It is not the gravitational pull that aligns, damping is necessary!

So: why is the moon stabilising?

RHABE

Hi,

as the moon is moving slowly further away some energy is dissipated as friction on earth and moon.

But angular momentum is conserved! So unless the disturbing forces from sun and planets can extract the moon from its orbit nothing peculiar will happen.

And : the direction of the rotation axis of earth may be changed regardless the existence or nonexistence of moon. The moon is stabilising the earth-moon systems orientation (by the systems big amount of angular momentum) but not the axis of rotation of earth.

So the consequences of changing weather patterns may happen or not.

Earth has seen in its geologic history many colds and warms. And related changing wind patterns blowing dust everywhere.

The cold air from the Arctic is much more influenced by Coriolis force and mountain orientation, so North America (Rocky Mountains mostly North-South) will have occasional colds in Florida whereas related freezing in North Africa (Alps acting as a barrier being oriented East-West) is rare.

Do you know any explanation why the earths orbit shall be not stable without moon except that the angular momentum is much lower? Where are the disturbing torques?

RHABE

I think that the moon's influence on the Earth is profound.

"So unless the disturbing forces from sun and planets can extract the moon from its orbit nothing peculiar will happen."

Nothing peculiar will happen? What about the ebb and flow of the oceans of the Earth? That motion is a direct result of the Moon's influence. And there are other influences that would cause something "peculiar" to happen.

Some of our language is even derived from the assumed influence of the Moon, such as the word lunatic. Years ago it was thought that the influence of the Moon was the cause of some people going mad. Hence the word lunatic from the Latin word luna, meaning moon.

So to imply that "...nothing peculiar will happen." is not without question. Many things peculiar will, indeed, happen. Some of which, I contend, could be far-reaching and possibly cause the extinction of or planet.

Who knows? Food for thought.

"The same side of the moon always faces us due to that side being more massive."

Ummm...well, not quite. This is the only point in your post I quibble with. Actually, it is a convergence of the revolution speed and rotation period that makes one side (actually about 55% of the Lunar surface) face us. I doubt there's much difference in the mass laterally. Certainly not enough to account for any orbital differences.

Correlations between global warming and the moon and its destruction is odd to me, destroying the moon is destroying the earth. It would give a whole new meaning to the concept of global warming. You'll be looking for your global fire escape.

No moon no earth I say. Our "quiet neighborhood" in the universe will never stay this way forever. Even small changes to our solar system affect it in totality. Even cataclysmic events large enough to change magnetic polarity, orbits, axis angle, or speed of revolutions could unhinge everything.

There will probably be a hell like atmosphere followed by another ice age followed by a stabilization in atmosphere where life can once again reform, creating another evolutionary cycle. Bet you the rats, mosquitos and cockroaches survive.

As I think of our planets history though, my take on it is it took millions of years to make it, and only a few hundred to destroy it. As this has happened, eyes towards the moon have made it seem habitable and a possible resource. What is to say that our future has us mining the moon substantially ? What could be the repercussions of a theoretically possible disaster then ?

Also, it is my opinion that space is the next frontier for metallurgy. The environment of space can change the properties of metals, etc. drastically. That is also why I believe this is theoretically a possible scenario.

If moon is destroyed all romance in the world will be destroyed. We have many romantic songs on moon. Better destroy such an sinfull thought in your mind Mr.NZ Chinese.

Wow....and look at the responses generated. What sort of science do they teach in China??? Sort of explains why the USA is spending so much money to see if Mars may be inhabitable, after all. Think I'll sleep with the light on tonight. wow

Better to turn the light off and sleep by the light of the moon. You never know when someone will take it into their head to roust it from its orbit, and we won't be able to enjoy it any more. Personally, I would miss it...

Look at Planets Venus and Mercury? What happened to the moons of these planets or these are moons of planet earth or other planets. It seems the journey of these planets end at Almighty SUN. The SUN which will recycle all the matter and then new earths will emerge through SUN and the periodic table will have all elements with twice the atomic weight or so. What if SUN becomes EARTH like planet. A next phase of planets when SUNS become EARTH like planets, every matter will be Humungous that means everything! Ans also origin could be from either tiny matter to large matter or vice versa. The universe oscillates in these extremes!

Boy - you just got too much time on your hands!

You speak as if the Moon is an individual 'thing'. You should be looking at how the Moon works in concert with the Earth to produce an environment that is able to bring forth a being that can ask your question.

Nor have we lost any land because because of the moon. Whatever land we may have lost is the result of plate tectonics. Just ask my 13 year old. We spent an entire semester on it.

It's all about relationships between massive bodies and entropy, but that is merely being logical, not really thinking.

If anything alters the fragile lattice-work of relationships between the various bodies in our solar system which causes a shift in earth's axis then it's time to assume a crash position and evacuate.

/Ari (Orpheuse)

Other than the geophysical and astrophysical effects noted above:

ER nurses I know will be thankful. ... Yes there is a psycosamatic (sp) effect on many people. Many ER folks hate going to work during a full moon.

It would change the shipping and saling lifes of many people. Some harbors might not be useable because they depend on high tides/low tide cycles to assist boats / ships arriving and departing. There would still be some high/low tides due to solar gravity, but the moon give a more pronounced effect.

It would deprive us a place to stare at with our SO prior to submarine races. (or other similar recreational pursuits)

Many songs would not be written, as the moon is deep in the poetic and musical lore, and effects some religous events (oriental and American Indians, and other peoples keep calendars based on lunar 'events').

It would deprive a good but reachable artificial goal for many nations to test their fledgling 'space might', and seriously effect the scifi literature of the last several centuries.

Could we distroy the moon? Possible, but not probable in the next several hundred years. We are more likely to argue about it and go to war over it before we distroy it with the childrens attitude of 'if I can't have it then nobody can'. We will probably over exploit it eventually, and we have done nothing to it currently other than litter (probes, space craft debris, landing zones, etc), and bounce a few lazers off of it.

Unless we do something like the old scifi series 'Space 1999' I doubt that we will do much 'to it'.

If we tie a piece of thread onto the moon and attach the other end to a tent peg hammered into the ground, as the Earth rotates it will slowly winch the the moon down to us... easy peasy...

Next!

Del

* What happens if there is no moon?

-nzchinese

Perhaps you have understood by now that such a question can have no affirmative answer...only negative answers in kind, for example: no month, no lunar calendars, no lunar eclipse, ...

The rest is just too vague to be taken seriously, or humourously. But again, all cons.

there would be no more tides and maybe the water can stay the same and there would be no floods and also a less chance of having tsunami's