• Question: What would happen if the moon went out of Earths orbit?

    Asked by 428bera39 to Colin, John, Kevin, Shikha, Triona on 10 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Lucy_xox, becky14123x.
    • Photo: Colin Johnston

      Colin Johnston answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      Well, firstly it couldn’t happened. The Earth’s gravity has been holding onto the Moon for more than 4 billion years!

      If somehow the Moon was ripped away, we would lose the tides in the ocean which I imagine would cause sea life problems. The Moon also generates tides in the molten rocks of the Earth’s interior, suddenly take away the Moon and trillions of tonnes of rock might collapse a few centimetres- releasing a lot of potential energy. So probably a marked increase in volcanoes and earthquakes.

      Long term, without the Moon’s stabilising influence, the Earth’s axis would be unstable so we’d see extreme cycles of climate change over thousands of years.

      Basically, we need the Moon!

    • Photo: Shikha Sharma

      Shikha Sharma answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Hi 428bera39, Lucy_xox, becky14123x,
      It is hard to imagine that moon moving out of its orbit. It can only happen if a large celestial body comes very near to moon and pulls moon out of its orbit through its strong gravitational force. Chance of such incident is hardly possible. However let’s imagine moon went out of its orbit. If it comes closer to the earth, earth will further pull moon towards itself and eventually moon will collide on earth surface. Impact of such strong collision will break both earth and moon into pieces and life on earth will not survive. Its just imagination, not possible as such 🙂 On other if moon moves away from earth, the moon’s gravitational force on earth will become very week. It will have severe impact on earth’s vast water bodies, as there will not be any tide. Hence water bodies e.g. ocean, seas, river will be calmer. This will disturb the natural eco-system of earth water and eventually many water based species will get extinct. Moreover, moon’s gravitation stabilizes earth’s rotation. With absence of moon earth will start rotate faster. Time of 24 hrs a day will be reduced; earth orbit around the sun will be more elliptical, there will be catastrophic effect on seasons. There will be significant climatic effect on earth leading to extinction of life from the earth.
      Moon is necessary for us 🙂

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