What would happen if the moon fell out of orbit?

Question

Hypothetically speaking, what kind of disastrous impact would it have on Earth, if our moon was to fall out of Earth's gravitational pull? Either slowly or all at once.

I am very aware that this is not going to happen and the probability is slim, this is simply a "What if" question.

Answer 1

Interesting question. Well....to think of an answer for this type of question, we should consider all the influences of moon on earth. Moon plays a very vital role in several factors. Ocean Tides, Speed of Earth's rotation to name few. If the moon were to disappear (hypothetically speaking), our planet would rotate faster since there is no drag from moon's gravity. If our planet were too big like jupiter, then moon's influence wouldn't have been so worth talking about. For example, jupiter has moons but since the planet is extremely big, its moon's influence is little on the planet. That is one of the reasons why Jupiter rotates faster. With that being said, it will lead to further changes within the planet too. Our earth (without moon) would start rotating faster and days would be shorter. Wind pattern might change and we would have very high winds that will last much longer.
Another important thing with the absence of moon is that, tides will not disappear. They will be there but we wont be seeing any high tides. (Bad for surfing :-) )
Tides also help in marine ecology. The changes in tidal waves will have a ripple effect on several things from sea life to climate. When i say sea life....i mean everything from microorganisms to big sea creatures.

Answer 2

the moon is escaping the gravitational field of the earth by about an inch and a half every year. If there was no moon, then life as we know it would not exist, the moon stabilizes the earths rotation, thus giving the earth it's seasons. The moon is not the direct reason for our seasons, but it gravitational field helps. If there was no moon then we'd have storms that blow with a wind velocity in excess of three hundred miles an hour. The tides would be only from the sun, so you see the moon is an important part of life on earth, it may even be the reason for life, because billions of years ago it was a lot closer and the tides were thousand foot tides, which stirred up the primordial oceans so that the basic building blocks of life would have a much better chance of taking hold.

Answer 3

What would happen if the Moon fell out of its orbit around Earth?
What would happen if the moon fell out of orbit with Earth completely. Specifically, how would that affect climate, geology, etc.?

Before I answer your question, you should understand that this will probably never happen. Only if a large object like Mars comes close to the Earth-Moon system is there any chance of an event like this happening.

If the Moon did escape from Earth, the main effect would be the lack of tides on Earth. Tides are caused by the differential gravitational force on the equatorial regions: i.e. the region closer to the Moon experiences more gravitational force than the region on Earth away from the Moon. This results in the formation of high and low tides on different regions of the Earth.

Other than tidal forces, there is no other geological or climatic influence of the Moon on Earth. There are issues like no more Moon to light up the night sky, no more solar eclipses, etc. but there will be no change in the geology or climate on Earth.

Answer 4

Hmm-m... Your question is incomplete.

Do you mean that the Moon would suddenly begin coming closer and closer to the Earth, or that the Moon would suddenly start going farther and farther away from the Earth until at last it was free of Earth's gravitational field?

If the Moon was to spiral down and impact with the Earth there would be a global catastrophe like never before in Earth's long history. Most probably all life forms would be wiped out in a very short period of time. Massive earthquakes would shake the entire globe as the mass of the Moon was absorbed into the crust of the Earth. A large bulge in the shape of the Earth would result in a highly irregular wobble in the rotation of the Earth until some semblance of spherical shape was regained as a result of shifts in various land masses. Some fish species might survive the event.

If the Moon was to drift out of orbit around the Earth significantly,
tides as we know them would cease to occur. Occasional wind driven changes in water levels would occur as they do today. Other than that and the loss of a night illumination from the Moon I don't think anything else would happen. Many people at NASA who work on Moon related projects would be out of a job. And, it is most probable that the Director of the CIA would loose his job for failing to warn the President of this tragic loss in time for us to have done something about it. Most likely our Congress would chastize the President for not committing enough men to that job in the same way he handled things in Iraq.

Answer 5

the moon has been steadily drifting farther way. The moon was much closer to the earth in the early days of the planet.

The tides would stop, and along with that, much of the worlds ocean currents, likely causing a crash in life in the oceans, and severely impacting global climate and food supplly

In addition, the earth would tilt on it's axis, wreaking even more havoc and probably driving HomosSapien into extinction.

Other than that, not much.

Answer 6

well the moon is traveling away from us, that is a known fact. in the 70s scientists even proposed that we someday steal another planet's moon and place it on orbit around us.now it sounds crazy but then again we spent a lot of time thinking the earth was flat so who knows! if the moon left us our climate would go crazy and our orbit would change radically...basically we would die since we would have an ice age, next year we'd have tsunamis...etc extreme changes in temperature not to mention the fact that if our orbit changes we might hit either a planet or a meteor. the implications are huge and the complications even bigger.

Answer 7

If the moon fell out of the orbit it will crash the earth and the earth simply end like that

Answer 8

We wouldnt have our high and low tides every 6 hours? I dont think it will have much of an impact. The moon is slowly drifting farther out.

Answer 9

The moon is slowly receding from the earth and will one day
escape earths gravity..
There will be huge major catostrophic changes to earth's
climate and man will be sorely impacted...

Answer 10

Well, things don't 'fall' out of orbit, they change their orbital patterns. Depends on whether the moon came closer to or drifted away from earth.