what would happen to earth if the moon was destroyed
In 2293, while returning home afterwards a successful mission cataloging gaseous planetary anomalies in the Beta Quadrant, the USS Excelsior, under the command of Helm Hikaru Sulu was struck by a subspace shock moving ridge. Initial investigation revealed the shock wave resulted from the destruction of Praxis; a Klingon moon utilized for energy production.
With only fragments of the moon remaining, the devastation of Praxis threatened Klingon, eating away at their ozone layer leading to the total loss of oxygen over the ensuing 50 years. Surely, the destruction of a moon is a violent and serious matter — enough that it forced an end to decades-long hostilities and a tenuous peace betwixt two warring races. But could a moon actually be destroyed? And if and then, would it lead to the imminent demise of the parent planet? With Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country turning 30 this week, information technology seems like a good fourth dimension to ponder these important questions.
Blowing Upwardly A MOON
Since we don't have direct observations of Praxis, it being a fictional moon and all, we'll utilize Earth's moon as a proxy. In social club to blow up the Moon (or a planet) yous need plenty free energy to overcome its binding free energy, that existence the amount of free energy property the whole thing together. The more massive the object, the more than binding energy information technology has. And while the Moon is a relatively pocket-size object compared to something like the gas giants, and even to Earth, it however has a lot of bounden energy. Something similar 120 octillion joules — that's a 12 with 28 zeroes backside it.
Merely that'southward a little difficult to visualize so let'due south try to bring it habitation. A standard stick of dynamite, measuring about 8 inches long, carries ane megajoule of explosive free energy within information technology. That's a 1 with half dozen zeroes behind information technology. It's a decent corporeality, certainly plenty to be unsafe, just information technology's laughably pocket-sized if yous're in the moon-blowing-upwardly-concern.
If dynamite is all you have at your disposal, and so you're going to need a whole lot of it. The math is pretty simple, dividing that big number upward above for the Moon's binding energy past ten involves only taking away a zero. Dividing it by a megajoule, is the same as dividing by a 1000000, then you take away six zeros to get the total number of sticks of dynamite we need to blow up the Moon.
We'd demand 120,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 8-inch sticks of dynamite. Laid out in a line, that much dynamite would stretch beyond the border of our solar system. It'south a lot. Not very feasible. Permit'due south try something more powerful.
The Tsar flop, the nigh powerful atomic bomb every deployed had a yield of 50 megatons. Though, that was dialed downwards for the examination from its capacity of 100 megatons. Allow'southward use the larger number, just for fun.
A 100-megaton bomb carries 4.184 times x to the 17th power joules of catholic explosion power in it. If we divide that into the bounden energy of the Moon we'd need — agree on while I intermission out the calculator — nearly 287 billion of those bombs. If we outfitted anybody on Earth with a cool spaceship and sent an armada of the entire human population to the Moon carrying bombs, we'd each have to have a compliment of 36 100-megaton bombs to get the task done, and that'due south assuming none of that energy is lost to space and nosotros tin can cram all of it into the Moon.
Suffice information technology to say, whatever the Klingons were doing on Praxis it was incredibly powerful and they're all lucky to accept lived through it at all. Supposing we can actually blow up the Moon, whether accidentally or on purpose, would it spell an imminent demise for humanity?
LIVING IN A Mail service-MOON Earth
The virtually immediate consequence of destroying the Moon would exist a much darker nighttime heaven. The Moon is the largest and most-cogitating object in our sky, exterior of the Sun of course. Losing it would brand the rest of the sky comparatively brighter, which might be a nice side issue for basis-based deep-heaven astronomers. Nosotros'll chalk that 1 up to silver linings.
Bated from missing it in the night sky, in that location are ii main things which would alter if the Moon no longer existed. Starting time are the tides.
That we take tides at all, the shifting of bodies of water of time, is a result of gravitational relationships between the Globe and Moon, and to a lesser degree the Sun. Every bit the Globe rotates and every bit the Moon orbits the Earth, it tugs on the oceans pulling them this mode and that. If it were gone tomorrow, the tides wouldn't totally vanish, but they'd exist much less impressive.
The tides nosotros enjoy today get nearly two-thirds of their movement from the Moon. On a moonless Earth, the oceans would yet move beneath the sway of the Sun'southward gravity, but it would exist much smaller. As a result, littoral regions and environments might be pretty drastically changed. The result would probably be felt farther out to ocean equally well, equally the currents alter in response to the diminished tides.
It's hard to know exactly what level of impact this would have on global environmental, but it probably wouldn't be the best. Still, it's not a globe-ending scenario. In all likelihood we would accommodate and be okay.
The other major bear upon the Moon has on the Earth relates to its tilt. The Earth sits at a pretty steady tilt of 23.5 degrees and that'south largely because the Moon acts as a sort of walking stick for us to lean on. Because our tilt is steady, we enjoy moderately stable seasons year over year and the polar regions remain comparatively common cold.
Without the Moon's influence, the Earth's tilt would shift much more dramatically. Basically, because the Moon is moderately large and close, it'southward the most apparent gravitational companion we have (again, aside from the Sun). But without it, we'd be at the mercy of gravitational pushes and pulls from the other planets in our solar system. Over time, the tilt of the Earth could get all out of whack and those snowy winters and warm summers we've come to rely on, would exist out the proverbial window.
Something similar that, however, would accept a long time. It'south probably non something we'd notice along human timescales. All told, if the Moon was destroyed it would be a big emotional bummer, but it wouldn't exist life-destroying
Let usa be articulate though, destroying the Moon is a monumentally bad idea and we don't endorse it, but in case whatever supervillains or extraterrestrial forces are reading this. We like our Moon just the way information technology is.
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Source: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/if-the-moon-were-destroyed-what-would-it-mean-for-earth