What if a large asteroid hit the moon?

Question

All the "asteroid attention" goes toward one of the large rocks hitting earth...Actually it is more likely that one will hit the moon...as it is, the moon has already taken a lot of hits that the earth may have other wise.
Much of life depends on lunar phases and the moon's gravity. Would we all die, or adapt if this happened

Answer 1

surely we'd adapt

maybe it would break the moon up and we would have 'many moons' !!!

Answer 2

Seriously, it's not "more likely that one will hit the moon." That ridiculous. The moon doesn't have nearly the same gravitation pull as earth. It also doesn't have an atmosphere for rocks to burn up in, so everything that heads towards the moon is gonna hit it. Earth gets pummeled everyday with asteroids and space rocks. They usually aren't big enough to make it through to hit the ground.

But to entertain your question, if there were no moon we'd probably experience some sort of El Nino to end all El Ninos. Migrating animals would flip out because they no longer know where their food is. And I'm sure that the change in the tide would most likely effect the ice caps or something, leading to either more global warming or cooling. Then assuming that this Death Star of an asteroid doesn't throw Earth completely off axis and hurtling toward the sun, sea navigation would have to be completely reworked and new systems created.

All in all, let's hope that this scenario stays hypothetical.

Answer 3

No, actually it is more likely that an asteroid will hit Earth. Earth has a higher gravitational cross section than the moon does.

A major asteroid strike would cause a winter five years long, and many species would die out. The human population would be severely cut back, with survivors being those who had supplies of stored food or access to small game that could subsist on the grass that could endure the dim years of cold weather.

Here's a link for you to play with.

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

Answer 4

Actually we would all have to adapt and there would be mass extinction, because the moon greatly affects the tides in the ocean because of its gravitational pull, and if there are no tides, then marine life is threatened, and thus the whole chain i affected.

Also, we should consider the moon splitting into particles which might hit the earth and causing more problems.

Answer 5

It'd have to be a really huge asteroid to hit the moon hard enough to change it's orbit or what not. I think if that acctually did happen we would be thanking our stars that it didn't hit earth, and wouldn't care about some stupid dolphins or something!

Answer 6

It'd probably just be another crater on the moon's surfface. If it was large enough to upset the orbit, I'm sure life would adapt.

Answer 7

Er... why is it "more likely" ?

I thought the moon was _smaller_ than the earth. Less surface area. Less gravity.

The reason you see all the craters on the moon is that there is no water... no weather... no erosion, no vegetation to cover them up and hide them over time.

Answer 8

We would have a much better chance of surviving in this case. It depends how big an asteroid you're talking about I guess.

Answer 9

the moon is not all that important when it comes down to it some would die, some would survive, but we don't have to have the moon to survive.

Answer 10

If it knocked it out of orbit... we'd have a BAD time...

With the tides!