What would happen if we accidentally/purposefully destroyed the moon ?

So reading another thread about our imminent destruction thanks to climate change and it mentioned sea levels rises which got me thinking about the moon and how its gravity affects our tides.

Which led me onto this question, what would happen to our planet if we had no moon ?

Say we accidentally destroyed or we harvested the moon rock for construction or whatever minerals are on it ?

I know we'd no longer have tides (or would we just have smaller ones ?)

But apart from tides what would a lack of a moon bring us ?

Would it affect weather patterns ?
Would it affect our orbit around the sun ?
Would it have some weird effect on ourselves ?

I'm sure the question has been asked before but I've never seen it asked so instead of remaining dumb to the answers, I feel it's good to ask the more knowledgable out there.

I look forward to your answers

a reply to: Discotech

The moon is 2 thirds the size of earth, if we destroyed it, it would rain destruction down on earth, changing life as we know it. We could Harvey it though, but we would never use it all up.

Camain

originally posted by: Discotech




Say we accidentally destroyed or we harvested the moon rock for construction or whatever minerals are on it ?

I know we'd no longer have tides (or would we just have smaller ones ?)

But apart from tides what would a lack of a moon bring us ?

Would it affect weather patterns ?
Would it affect our orbit around the sun ?
Would it have some weird effect on ourselves ?

I'm sure the question has been asked before but I've never seen it asked so instead of remaining dumb to the answers, I feel it's good to ask the more knowledgable out there.

I look forward to your answers

The Sun won't sit back and let us enjoy water without a ripple, conversely without a Moon there would be no need to get all romantic in seek of a bonk.
All in all, not a bad idea really.

a reply to: Discotech

In short fast ford to 1:42.

The moon is responsible for many things, its not just the tides, it also regulates or at least affects the spin of the earth.
No moon would also increase the amount of sunshine hitting the earth, a dream come true for the global warming peeps!

a reply to: camain

Why would we never use it all up ? The moon does not have infinite mass, given time I'm sure we could mine it into nothingness

a reply to: Grimpachi

So there's lots of theories but nothing concrete or definitive on what would happen ?

a reply to: Discotech

This thread and the current political climate made me think of this skit from Mr. Show:

originally posted by: Discotech
So reading another thread about our imminent destruction thanks to climate change and it mentioned sea levels rises which got me thinking about the moon and how its gravity affects our tides.

Which led me onto this question, what would happen to our planet if we had no moon ?

Say we accidentally destroyed or we harvested the moon rock for construction or whatever minerals are on it ?

I know we'd no longer have tides (or would we just have smaller ones ?)

But apart from tides what would a lack of a moon bring us ?

Would it affect weather patterns ?
Would it affect our orbit around the sun ?
Would it have some weird effect on ourselves ?

I'm sure the question has been asked before but I've never seen it asked so instead of remaining dumb to the answers, I feel it's good to ask the more knowledgable out there.

I look forward to your answers

Your answer depends on what happened to the moon. If it was blown up the pieces would conyinue in the same orbit and things on earth really wouldn't change much. Provided the pieces were not sent at the earth that is lukily for us the pieces of the moon would tend to clump together forming a cloud. This cloud would be really bright and could turn night into day.

Now a senario where someone dragged it off somewhere. Tides would still happen the bulge would just follow the sun instead of the moon. So in that regard not much diffrence. What could be effected is the earths wobble. It Right now the spin axis of the Earth very slowly wobbles over 26,000 years, like a slowing wobbling top, because of the tug of the sun. The wobble causes true north to not always point at Polaris, a.k.a., the North Star. The moon sort of balances this pull out from the sun making sure its not to severe. Without it the earyhs tilt could end ou from zero to 85 degrees. Zero we get no seasons at all. And at 85 degrees the earth would be effectively on its side. But even thus would be a slow process taking millions and millinions of years. Immediately we wouldn't know the difference.

The moon helps stabilize the Earths rotation. If the moon were to disappear then the weather patterns of the earth would become very erratic because of the wobble then being far more dramatic. The weather patterns would very so much it would extinguish much of the life on the planet, and could eventually make it uninhabitable for even humans.

This would take millions of years so by then perhaps we could drag enough asteroids and other junk over to replace the moon (if that would even a viable solution).

originally posted by: Alien Abduct
The moon helps stabilize the Earths rotation. If the moon were to disappear then the weather patterns of the earth would become very erratic because of the wobble then being far more dramatic. The weather patterns would very so much it would extinguish much of the life on the planet, and could eventually make it uninhabitable for even humans.

This would take millions of years so by then perhaps we could drag enough asteroids and other junk over to replace the moon (if that would even a viable solution).

No as far as weather that would depend on tilt of the earth as I said in previous post would take millions of years to change. So no immediate change at all in the weather. And the process would be so slow that life on the planet would be fine.

This makes me think about the Doctor Who episode.... where the moon ended up being an egg that hatched , and a dragon sprung out of it, and it laid another Egg/Moon in its place !!!!

a reply to: dragonridr

So we don't really need the moon then ?

Could removing the moon offset supposed climate change ? (if it was physically possible to remove the moon)

a reply to: Discotech

If the moon were made of cheese, and we ate it all, I think we'd get fairly fat.

As 65% of the human population is lactose intolerant, the result would, no doubt, be severe worldwide diarrhea tsunami's.

Rule No1: - Never eat anything larger than your head in a single sitting.

Rule No2: - If you are lactose intolerant, don't eat lunar cheese - or any other type.

originally posted by: camain
a reply to: Discotech

The moon is 2 thirds the size of earth, if we destroyed it, it would rain destruction down on earth, changing life as we know it. We could Harvey it though, but we would never use it all up.

Excuse me? Where did you go to school? The Moon is about 1/4th the size of the Earth. 27%. In terms of volume, it's 2%. In terms of area, it's 7.4%. In terms of mass, it's 1.2% How did you EVER come up with this crap? Good Lord! And ATS says it "denies ignorance"??????

originally posted by: Discotech
a reply to: camain

Why would we never use it all up ? The moon does not have infinite mass, given time I'm sure we could mine it into nothingness

a reply to: Grimpachi

So there's lots of theories but nothing concrete or definitive on what would happen ?

I think you're severely underestimating the size of the Moon. Humans have been mining Earth for thousands of years and haven't even made a noticeable dent in Earth's crust layer. I'm not talking about topsoil, I mean the actual "crust" (which includes all of our countries and oceans).

What could we possibly do to the Moon? Also, where would all of that extra mass/material go?

a reply to: dragonridr

Unless there was a dramatic global warming affect that killed off most vegetation. Then most life on up the food chain would be extinguished along with most humans.

a reply to: Discotech

If we had no moon or only small fragments of it then it would really mess up my Esabats.

a reply to: Discotech

Extreme weather, extreme tides until the settle, extreme change in tectonics, volcano activity, winds will change. Migratory animals may become confused or cease migrating as some rely on the moon.

originally posted by: Tindalos2013
a reply to: Discotech

If we had no moon or only small fragments of it then it would really mess up my Esabats.

I read somewhere that Werewolves need the moon for mating. Gets em hot. The absence of the Moon would affect both humans and animals.

Romance would die, along with werewolves.