Moon Balloon?

Question

Following on from the brilliant moon ballon question and how it would react on the moon, which most people thought would smash to the ground much like a rock, what would happen if a rock, say the size of a ballon hit the moon, it would have so much power and destructive potential so why is it that the moon isnt smashed to peices yet! you can see destruction on the moon but given the amount of space debris it should be destroyed or so I believe if given that the moon balloon would hit the ground like a rock?

also, for sake of argument, take away the fact that the ballon would explode, that was already answered in the original Moon Ballon Question!

Answer 1

You're leaving out an important part of information..what is the speed of the rock.
The craters you see on the surface of the moon are the result of collisions of space debris with the moon. Some of these are quite large. Nothing big enough to destroy the moon has hit it yet, hence it's still there. There is a theory that something large hit the Earth in it's early "days" of formation and this is what created the moon.

Answer 2

It would hit the moon like a balloon. Even if it were very large, it would have a very low density and therefore very low mass. It takes mass and velocity to create force. Remember, F = ma. Force is the product of mass and velocity.

Ruling out punctures, the balloon would hit the moon and if the impact did not stretch the balloon material past its tensile strength, it would just bounce. It would have to be travelling very very very very fast indeed to do any damage.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Answer 3

I think if you had a balloon on the moon (like a standard helium balloon), it would pop because the gas is exerting pressure on the balloon from the inside but there is nothing in the atmosphere of the moon that is exerting the same amount of pressure back because there is little atmosphere on the moon. Therefore, the balloon would explode.

Answer 4

what!