The impact would cause all sorts of havoc on Earth. From seismic disturbances, oceans swelling, and even knocking our alignment off (which has terrible consequences in our weather patterns). It's a doomsday scenerio.
Originally posted by: jagec
Originally posted by: Paratus
Now which weighs more a pound of uranium or a pound of hydrogen?
trick question. They both have the same mass (assuming you mean lbm), but the pound of hydrogen would "weigh" a lot less on a standard spring scale (or balance).
self-pwnt. nicely done
Without the mass of the moon (which includes no mass of residue of the moon), the combined mass of the earth/moon would decrease. From the point of view of the sun, the change in mass would dictate a change in the speed of earth in its orbit around the sun and also therefore change the shape to some extent of the earth's orbit around the sun. In addition, on a more local basis, the energy that is inside the earth due to the momentum of the rotation of its core and of the rotation of the planet on its axis would lose the "stabilizing" counterweight of the mass of the moon. Thus, the earth would not only wobble on its axis, but likely change the speed of its rotation around its axis and the angle of the axis would shift over time. Those shifts are likely to be periodic in nature, ie first one way then another, etc. Due to loss of the gravitational attraction of the moon, the pressure of the earth's atmosphere would likely change; but I cannot predict if this change would be meaningful.
Based on the above, you can imagine the impact on weather, winds, temperature, indeed all life on earth. Entire classes of life would disappear and (hopefully) other classes survive. Whether man is strong enough to survice this dramatic shift is speculation. It would be a whole new world out there.
Based on the above, you can imagine the impact on weather, winds, temperature, indeed all life on earth. Entire classes of life would disappear and (hopefully) other classes survive. Whether man is strong enough to survice this dramatic shift is speculation. It would be a whole new world out there.
Well, if the moon were suddenly to just "vaporize" or disappear. . .say it were magically teleported to some arbitrary spot across the universe so far away from Earth that its influence was negligible, wouldn't that be like suddenly releasing or cutting the gravitational ties between the Earth and moon? My guess is this would lead to a sudden "evening out" effect of all the Earth's tidal bodies of water. . .Rather than the tide slowly rising and ebbing as the earth and moon spin around each other and different areas of the earth are closer too and then further away from the moons influence. . .wouldn't all the water from everyplace where it was high tide suddenly "slosh" back causing huge tsunamis? Also, I find it hard to believe that lack of the moons influence on the tides would not affect the ocean currents such as the gulf stream which bring warmth to areas that would otherwise be generally cooler. I don't know for sure what would happen to the currents but I am guessing they would certainly change somehow which would cause mild to drastic climate changes in different parts of the world.
This was discussed in a previous HT thread (that I'm too lazy to search for). The answer I remember was that it wouldn't suddenly "slosh" back because inertial forces and existing gravitational forces would slow it down. Tides are caused by a difference in distance from a source of gravity. Every day the "water from everyplace" is already swinging a larger amount due to lunar tides (from -1*lt to 1*lt) than would swing from the moon's disappearance (from -1*lt to 0*lt or from 1*lt to 0*lt ).
Yep I understand that. But that change from -1*lt to 1*lt happens gradually / incrementally as the earth spins and the moon rotates around it. Like stretching a rubber band between two pencils by slowly moving them more distant from each other and then gradually relaxing the rubber band by slowly moving them back together until the rubber band is in its "relaxed" state. Well, some point on the earth is always like the rubber band at the streched state (1*lt) while an opposite part is like in the relaxed state (-1*lt). Points in between are at different levels of "stretch" between -1 and 1. Gradually the -1 part becomes 1 and vice versa as the earth spins. . .Now remove the moons gravity suddenly, as if one of the pencils (the "moon" pencil) broke. What happens to that rubber band (the water)? SNAP it flies very rapidy to it's 0 state.
DrPizza
Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
But
1. the earth (rubberband if it were) is barely stretched at all. I recall in the other thread I had looked up the amount of deformation... it's probably less than you'd believe.
2. The earth is NOT a rubberband. Push your hand down on memory foam. Remove your hand. Where's the "snap" back to its original shape? The earth isn't made of memory foam either, of course.
3. Now, suppose we want to debate anyway the speed that the earth would "snap" back into shape anyway.... I simply offer up this question: Why isn't the bulge directly centered under the moon (and on the opposite side of the earth)... instead, there's a slight lag.
Incidentally, this whole topic was covered quite a bit last year
here
In my layman's example, I was not using the rubber band as the earth. The rubber band represents the WATER in the tidal bodies on the Earth and the stretching is the moons graviational pull. The pencil that breaks is representing the moon "disappearing." Nothing would happen to the earth. That is not my argument. I'm talking about the WATER. But anyway, that thread link clears things up. Thanks.
Well for one, I think we'd see a huge impact made on tidal patterns in the ocean, as those are largely determined by the moon...
JonB
Platinum Member
I forget the science fiction novel reference at the moment, but once scenario was the exportation from Earth of small mining robots, designed to be self-replicating. They begin mining the moon, consuming its mass, building more robots, and then they are programmed to launch back to earth to bring the metals here. Over decades to centuries, the moon was completely digested. The mass was slowly transferred from lunar orbit back to earth or to earth orbit.
PlasmaBomb
Lifer
- Nov 19, 2004
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If the moon was gone, earth would spin out of orbtit. This is because our moon is different than lets say, one of jupiter's, in that jupiters moons are revolving around the center of its mass (somthing like that) and the moon is pulled towards earth by somwhere else. This is because our moon was probobly formed by a smaller planet or asteroid hitting the earth around the time the solar system was forming, and all the debris going into space and forming the moon. Our moon is gravitationally attached different than one of jupiter's becuase jupiters moons are just things that were floating in space that got pulled in, but our moon came from the earth.
So, if the moon was gone, we'd spin way out of orbit, and everthing would die. We'd probobly go back into some sort of orbit, but too far away for life to exist.
So, if the moon was gone, we'd spin way out of orbit, and everthing would die. We'd probobly go back into some sort of orbit, but too far away for life to exist.
JonB
Platinum Member
Our moon is not gravitationally different than any moon. Regardless of how it was formed or its composition, our moon is different only because it is HUGE compared to all other moons on a percentage of mass difference basis. Because of that high mass, the moon does affect earth's barycenter. The discussion here is about what would happen if that barycenter shifted back to the actual center. Don't attach any mystical powers to the moon and its composition.
Our orbit around the sun is determined by our combined masses. If the moon "disappeared" then our orbit would change, but in no case would we go way out of orbit.
Our orbit around the sun is determined by our combined masses. If the moon "disappeared" then our orbit would change, but in no case would we go way out of orbit.
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