if the moon exploded, how would earth be effected?

Answer 1

If the moon exploded what would pull our ocean's tides and make people act crazy around the full moon?

Answer 2

Well, it wouldn't affect the earth's orbital path. Although the moon would be in fragments, the overall mass of the earth-moon system would remain unchanged. Therefore, the earth's orbit around the sun would remain unchanged.

The folks who are saying that huge chunks of the moon would hit the earth and kill the dinosaurs all over again are off their rockers. If an explosion is the only thing that happens, the resulting chunks of the moon would retain their angular momentum relative to the earth. Thus, they would remain in orbit -- and would not hit the earth.

Depending on how thorough the explosion was, it'd definitely have an effect on tides. There would still be tides, however, as the sun has an effect, too, on tidal cycles. Generally, the tides would be less pronounced -- and the oceans would become less interesting.

Nobody has mentioned what likely would be the single most noticeable effect: Assuming the explosion was thorough, the debris would eventually settle into a nice little ring system.

It'd turn the earth into a mini-Saturn.

Answer 3

Well, if the Moon exploded we would probably be showered with thousands and thousands of gigantic meteors. It depends on how strong the explosion is, but chunks landing in the oceans could hit hard enough to vaporize lots of water. I.E. with thousands of huge chunks falling, the oceans could evaporate.

Needless to say, we'd all be dead, as would almost all life on earth. In fact, probably the only thing left would be the archaebacteria and any other chemosynthetic organisms that don't use light to make food (like plants do) and that don't eat other organisms for food (these are called heterotrophs) because there won't be many other organisms around. Chemosynthetic autotrophic organisms make their food out of chemicals they absorb from the environment and could probably survive.

Here's another thing that will contribute to the end of almost all life. These multiple impacts will transmit enourmous amounts of energy into the earth, heating up not only the oceans, as I already mentioned, but also the molten core of the earth. This will probably result in a huge increase in volcanic activity.

The increased volcanic activity in addition to the billions and billions of tons of dust floating around the atmosphere, will block almost all the sun's light from hitting the earth's surface, which is why I said that plants (and all animals) will probably go extinct, and only chemo-autotrophs (make their own food from chemicals) will survive.

Also, the Moon is pretty large. If I a good portion of it lands on Earth after the explosion, it will increase Earth's mass significantly, which may slow Earth's rotation (or it may actually not. This requires more thought) and possibly cause the distance of its orbit from the sun to change slightly (This also requires more thought to be sure.) This would mean longer days and longer nights, once the dust finally clears. If night lasts too long, it will get might get much colder at night and not be conducive to higher life forms re-evolving.

Is that what you were asking? Or were you asking something more like, "What would happen if the moon suddenly disappeared?"

In that case, the Earth's tides would be greatly reduced, although we would still experience the Sun's effect on them. If the Moon suddenly winked out of existence, it could affect the Earth's rotation and revolution speeds based on conservation of momentum of the Earth-Moon system. The Earth doesn't make its journey around the Sun alone. The Moon is its partner and if it disappears, the Earth will be affected.

P.S. As "wisdom cube" noted above, it also depends on how the moon explodes. I think a direct matter-to-energy conversion would wipe out the entire solar system, maybe even a good chunk of the galaxy? The Earth would be annihilated.

P.P.S. I don't understand why some people keep saying that no moon = no tides (so far so good) = massive flooding (huh?). Did I miss something in science class?

P.P.P.S. I vote for alig's answer as the best, though, hands down.

Answer 4

We would be in deep kimshi, the moon dose allot for us, it controls the tides, it helps us maintain a 23* angle towered the sun. So if the moon was to just disappear we would start to tumble kind of like mars, there would be no safe place on the earth any more, think of it like this if a snow globe was earth and the moon was gone shack the hell out of that globe that is the way are climates would become sporadic unpredictable, desserts would become oceans and oceans would slash all over the earth. BAD news for us, Unfortunately this is going to happen in about 100,000 years or so see the moon is in a stiller drift it drifts about 2 feet a year from earth there will be a time in earth near future where the average day will be 25 hours long again this is all do to the moon, I know it sounds crazy but it is fact. So all in all if we lost the moon for any reason what so ever......Check mate!! I hope this helps

Answer 5

We would probably die. If there was no moon, the tides would go crazy, and probably drown half the earth. There would be many earthquakes, causing many tsunami's and volcanoes. The ash from the volcanoes would contaminate our air causing us to suffocate. And if we don't suffocate from teh air, there will be no sunlight for our plants to grow, causing mass starvation. The earth would also go through many major changes, it would wobble a lot on its axis, causing half the earth to be in ice and half to be very hot. It would change so often there would never be any constant range as we have now. We would never be able to predict what would happen next with our weather, so we wouldn't be able to sustain life. Even as of now, our earth wobbles on its axis, however the moon evens it out, and it only ever tilts to 23 degrees. As it is, our moon used to be much closer to earth than it is now, there used to be 18 hour days as close as about 2-3000 years ago. The moon gets further from earth by 1.6 inches every year. There woudln't be any life in the water either, because there wouldn't be any tides to regulate it. Basically if there never was a moon, we would not be alive today, as earth could not sustain life witout it. And if it ever left us, or exploded, we will not survive. Life as we knew it would be gone. If you are interested, there is also a movie called if we had no moon, and it tells us how the earth would be different if the moon never was formed.

Answer 6

if the moon exploded the pieces would land on earth and everybody would get to eat green cheese.
noooo!!!!! just kidding
but yes the pieces would land on earth and cause all sorts of disasters.
without the moon there will be reduced tidal action as tides are mainly caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon and the sun and to a very much lesser extend the other planets of the solar system.
you would not experience a lunar eclispe or an eclispe of the sun if there was anybody left to see one.
God bless,
gabe

Answer 7

The Earth may be impacted by chunks of the moon. This would cause tsunamis and change the face of the planet forever.

Gradually, the earth would begin to wobble on its axis. We would not have regular seasons anymore. The Earth would drift in space, still orbiting the sun but perhaps drifting dangerously close or away from it.

Regardless of where the Earth would end up, all human life would be profoundly affected. We would most likely die from extreme weather conditions. Animals would die too but bacterium and other simple creatures would continue to exist.

Answer 8

If the moon exploded, the earth would be really affected. First of all the gravity would go berserek, along with the waves.

Answer 9

There could possible be a loss of seasons, tides, equinoxes, and a change in the Earth's axis tilt. Instead of seasons being based on the time of year, they would depend on different lattitudes. In other words, a massive horizontal strip wrapping around the Earth could always be winter or summer. Pretty weird.

There's a lot of extra info. at my source below.

Answer 10

The earth would go spinning out of control and careen into the sun. This would cause the earth to explode and thousands of hot spots to erupt on the sun. Then, mercury would turn into actual elemental mercury and float around space and coat all the other planets in its' silveriness. Too bad we wont be around to see that, huh?