Asteroid impacts moon, moon explodes, newly created asteroid hits earth?

Question

If a planet/moon were to explode, what would there be to slow down the debris? Would there also be a way the debris could accellerate? Say a planet/moon exploded, whats to stop the asteroid created from directly impacting our moon and causing it to explode thus sending yet another newly created asteroid at us?

In a vaccum what is there to slow something down or speed it up that has no physical propulsion attached to it?

This is what is explained in the bible, that an asteroid coming from the suns location, hits the moon, causing another asteroid to hit the earth, while removing our atmosphere, in it's final days, what would it take for this to actually happen? What is it in space that could affect what it would take for this to happen?

In the bible, (I can't recall the exact passage or where it's located,) the Lord says that he's already started for this to happen that an asteroid will "block the sun" and "wipe away the clouds" this asteroid is also supposed to impact the moon as well and send it's parts into the earth. I know this is possible, dependant upon location of impact into the moon, size/speed of asteroid impacting it, as well as the ability to wipe away the atmosphere if the rock is large enough. People seem to forget that the moon is going around the earth, the earth is going around the sun, this scenerio has already been proven to be a possibility by scientists a decade or so ago, I'm just trying to figure out why it would be that it couldn't be detected until the asteroid was already "blocking the sun", at what size and speed would it have be and to travel to block out the sun for three days and impact the moon exploding it sending it's debris our way, causing extinction.

Answer 1

For something solid to explode, part of it must expand greatly. The easiest and most common way to do so is to vaporize a portion of it from the inside. So for our moon to explode, we need a pretty large hunk of rock traveling very fast to even penetrate tho moon's crust and send it somewhere near the middle. then it would have to vaporize inside for the moon to explode.

However, flying particles with that amount of energy need to have planet-like or moon-like masses, which would mean only something comparable to the moon's size could actually do so, which is highly improbable. Even if that happens, the actual explosion would have to be so big that it would have to overcome the moon's gravity. This said explosion would then have to vaporize a large portion of the moon, and would break larger bits of it to small pieces. So the impact that causes the explosion will in fact prevent a large hunk of rock from hitting us.

However, it would be more likely if the asteroid ITSELF would hit us, and said scenario happens.

Any force could slow down or speed up an object in space. So possible answers would be gravity, impacts with other objects, solar wind, light pushing an object, all sorts of stuff.

Could you tell us where it says in the Bible that the scenario will happen? Just so we can check it out.

Answer 2

Well, an asteroid could hit either the moon or the earth directly. Many thousands have already done so. Both the earth and the moon are subject to massive asteroid impacts which would quickly destroy them. But if the moon were hit and destroyed the earth would be in a lot of trouble even if none of the fragments hit the earth. This is because the moon stabalizes the earth's tilt, restricting it to polar angles of 10 to 20 degrees. Without the moon the earth's axis would begin tilting more and more until it was swinging as much as 90 degrees back and forth. This would make the equator rotate around what are now the N. and S. poles. In such conditions there would be no seasons as we now know them, and most forms of life on earth would go extinct rather quickly, including our own.

Answer 3

Well, if you're asking for an astronomical explanation, a large asteroid hitting the moon could make it explode, but it would have to either be quite massive, or travelling at a tremendous speed. If it were quite massive, the asteroid would ricochet off the moon and then hit the earth.

A large part of the moon hitting the earth would be difficult, as the moon has a lot of momentum. Remember, the moon is in orbit around the earth, and it would have to be slowed down considerably to alter its path enough to hit the earth.

I'm not all that familiar with Revelations, so I can't comment on that part much. You'd need an asteroid that was incredibly massive - more massive than the earth - to pull the air away from the earth.

hope that helps

Answer 4

Several larger asteroid impacts could potentially move the moon very slightly in it's orbit, although there are no objects large enough to move the moon so far out of it's current path that it would crash into the earth in anything less than several hundred million years. The moon is currently moving away at a rate of just under 4cm every year (1.5in), the very most an asteroid could possibly do would be to reduce that rate by the smallest margin. Also, if the moon did collide with the earth, the earth would bend and flex towards the moon, land would probably split and crack, the tides would go out of control, things would go crazy, but no, the world would not resemble the avatar world in any way - the moon doesn't produce enough gravity to counteract the gravity of the earth. The moon also has relatively minimal magnetic presence, so it wouldn't affect the earth's magnetic field. Changes in gravity would affect tidal activity and air density, which would in turn have massive impacts on the weather, but the magnetic field would remain intact. Basically - world is cracking and splitting on the surface, the tide is rising and falling a huge amount (as in, hundreds of meters). Nothing is flying or floating as the moon's gravity is not sufficient to overcome the earth's, but the weather is DIFFERENT because of a change in climate (not necessarily firestorms, just things like snow in a desert).

Answer 5

If the largest asteroid impacts the Earth, it would create a piece of the moon to break off (in fact, a Mars-sized object crashed into the Earth 3.7 billion years ago, creating the Moon). Whether that piece hits the Earth depends on its speed and direction. If the new piece of rock is headed directly towards Earth, it will probably hit it. If it is just slightly off, it could hit it if it is not moving fast enough. However, the asteroid would not slow down unless and until it hits the Earth's atmosphere.

Answer 6

Actually about 700 years ago the moon was hit by an asteroid and knocked slightly on an angle. Because of this we can see 51% of the moon at a time (it's tilted).

You must know that the moon is not being pulled by the Earth around it, so if something hit and tore it apart it wouldn't necessarily fly towards the Earth. With 240,000 miles between us and the velocity of the incoming object the moon debris would most likely leave the curvature of space/time created by the Earth's mass and fly harmlessly into space.

Answer 7

There have been a few science fiction films based on something like this ... but actually space is vast and it's a small chance that such events create just the perfect trajectory.

The moon has actually acted something as a protector for the earth over the hundreds of missions of years, but it's a statistical thing. Tons of tiny space objects are falling on us daily ... increasingly larger objects are exponentially rarer. Eventually big ones do hit, as with the Arizona Crater, formed about 49,000 years ago. Such disasters are very rare, but will of course happen over enough passing of time.

Answer 8

Well, I´m from germany, but I will do my best, that you understand me.
It´s smply mathematic.
When an object hits another object, the impulse will given from the one to the other.
An object on a cyclecourse leaves this course allways on a straight course, which stands in an angle of 90° to the radius. In german we say tangential.
The chance, that an asteroid hits the moon in a direct line asteroid - moon - earth is very very small.
And even when this should be happen, well the result like the rings of saturn, you well know.
So, i hope you have understand me and my english.

Answer 9

At this moment there is no unity in Earth population political or any other that could provide means for confrontation of such problem. Science fiction is the domain that has tackled problem of such nature and right now I don't think that we have anything that is nearly in work like more complex and advanced space vehicle, nuclear warheads like in fiction, or any other means that could aver only one asteroid, and if we talk about multiple asteroids on impact course with earth we are in deep trouble.
Solution is perhaps in domain of faith , but in our technology is not.
There are probably some smart people in JPL laboratory's an at NASA or ESA or Russian space agency that are thinking about it , but I think that they also think in science fiction terms rather then in temporary technology.
You could try to put some kind of missile with nuclear warhead in orbit, or put some solar sails on asteroid if we are talking not imminent period of collision. But as I know there are no tech solutions that are experimenting with solar sails, or with projectiles that operate in interplanetary space with some real navigation and radar location outer space.
Sorry, there must be more political will to tackle this kind of problem, and we the earth population are not going in this way. If there were will political or some other in this world there would not be hunger , that is a more realistic problem with possibility of solution.

Answer 10

If our moon was impacted to the level you decribe, -

"If a planet/moon were to explode"

You would not have very long to dwell on it. Our orbit would go completely out of control and the winds alone would wipe mankind off the face of the earth.