If Earth had two Moons?

Question

What would happend if Earth attracted a Mercury sized moon that passed close enough to become our own?

Answer 1

if earth had 2 moons, id have to howl twice.

Answer 2

That's an interesting question. Let's start off by assuming that the Earth - 2 moon system would be stable. This is a pretty major assumption, because unless the system was set up very carefully, it would soon descend into chaos and our Moon (which is smaller than the new Mercury sized one) would probably be ejected from the system. But let's ignore this and say the system is stable.

Under this condition, I can think of 2 important effects. The first is the tides. As you know, the tides are caused by the gravitational influence of the Moon: the side of the Earth facing the Moon feels a stronger gravitational pull, while the side facing away feels a weaker one, leading to the Earth being stretched ever so slightly. Well, with two moons, the tides would be less regular than they are now. Also, very high and very low tides would occur periodically, making life on the coast more interesting.

Second, assuming the two moons orbited in roughly the same plane, we would have more interesting eclipses. Solar eclipses would be more common, as would lunar eclipses. We would even see occultations, where the more distant moon passed behind the nearer one. These would all surely be quite beautiful.

Answer 3

Well, our nights would be quite different in the sense that we don't have the nil moon and full moon days as now, but in a much more complicated manner. The tides will be different. We may have many more eclipses.

What else would happen depends on the size of the moon and its distance, orientation with respect to earth etc.

Answer 4

All of the two moon planets can only survive a few 10s of thousands of years at its best. This is due to the pull of the planet on the two moons, plus the larger of the two will pull on the smaller one. In the end the smaller moon will come crashing into the planet or be consumed by the larger moon.

Answer 5

It is impossible to attracted a mercury sized moon that passed close. Because the eath has some gravitational attractive force as well as it has some repulsive force also with other astronomical things like sun, moon and other planets.
And in other way the earth revolves around the sun due to this repulsive force called as centrifugal force. Hence it is impossible and there is no chance to your expectation.

Answer 6

Seasons and tides would be radically different.

Answer 7

difficult point. seek onto a search engine. that may help!