What would happen if an asteroid the size of Texas slammed into the MOON???......?

Question

how severe will the earths gravitational pull be? would gravity on earth become suspended? if the gravity would be effected, will people "fall" into outer space? how many tsunami's will there be? would it cause earthquakes? what would happen to my dog?! im scared! help!

kookaburra what do u mean there are no asteroids the size of Texas? how would you know that? there could be an asteroid that big 5 million light years away from earth...you dont know whats out there!!!! there can be an asteroid the size of the sun or even bigger!

Answer 1

Obviously Kookaburra meant there are no asteroids as big as your paranoia imagines there are, in this solar system. More than 350,000 asteroids are known about and Ceres, the first to be found in 1801, remains the largest that has been found,

To say "there could be a larger one" (in this solar system) fails to grasp why Ceres was the first to be found. It was one of the brightest ones, and thus able to be found more easily, because it was such a large one. Do you think it probable that a larger one would have escaped detection for 200 years when we have automated asteroid-hunting techniques that are now turning up 5,000 or more a month?

Asteroid belts or Kuiper Belts have been found round two other stars so far and in one case the belt has ten times the mass of ours and in the other case 25 times the mass of ours. Probably there are asteroids bigger than Ceres around these two stars, therefore. But how would they get here!?

You seem to have no grasp how the gravitational effect of massive bodies affects the movement/orbit possibilities of other bodies.

(1) the effect of Jupiter is to marshal the asteroids in the Main Asteroid Belt into bands separated by Kirkwood Gaps. It "keeps them in line".

Ceres will therefore not escape into the Inner Solar System and impact the Moon. Saying "it could do" is simply being uninformed and ignorant of how the Laws of Physics work.

(2) Asteroids and planets do not live in interstellar space and pop in to stellar systems they feel like visiting (as Nibiru mystics like to believe). They orbit a star.

Only in very rare circumstances like a supernova explosion do they leave their parent star. The gravitational attraction of other stars is not likely to pull them away from the star they orbit because other stars are so much further away, relatively speaking (except in a binary system).

(3) The only possible circumstances in which asteroids or planets might leave one stellar system and join another is if a massive star draws very close to another of much lower mass.

In about 1.4 million years time, the star Gliese 710 will approach the Sun to a distance of 1,1 light years away, It is a red dwarf and of lower mass than the Sun. This may cause some perturbation of comets in the Oort Cloud, and cause more to be dispatched towards the Inner Solar System. But its not close enough for us to gain any of Gliese 710's companions if it has any (none known as yet).

How do we know? The Hipparcos survey looks at the proper motion of all nearby stars to detect those that have been closer to us or will be in the future.

So saying "there might be other stars that could come closer" fails to grasp that they would have been picked up by the survey if that was so and obviously if they aren't close enough to be surveyed. they aren't (yet) close enough to have any prospects of coming close to the Sun.

If you read and understood more about astronomy, you wouldn't fall prey to believing that something you can imagine might happen has any realistic propsects of happening just because you thought it could perhaps happen.

Pigs might fly, but rational people like the Walrus and the Carpenter talk of many things and discuss the salient facts like "whether pigs have wings" and assess the probability that they might fly in the light of the known facts about pigs.

WHAT ARE THE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT ASTEROIDS?

No asteroids larger than Ceres are known in this solar system.

No star-hopping asteroids are known.

Therefore the assessment has to be that no asteroid not of Solar System origins will enter the Solar System and impact the Moon.

And therefore your fears are groundless.

Answer 2

Well, the moon would be mostly affected, not us. At first, anyways. Then the moon would most likely break off, and chunks of the moon would come crashing into earth. There would not be earthquakes, in the sense that earthquakes are generated by the earth. However, where the chunks of the moon strikes the earth, there will be an earthquake-like ripple effect that will knock down buildings for miles and miles. Tsunamis-defenitely. And your dog-your dog has just as much of a chance at living as you do-perhaps more. Animals tend to sense disasters like this, and so they take the nessecary precautions-aka running away. Your dog is probably safer than you are.
Also, the moon will probably end up looking a lot like the moon Miranda, which is a moon that most likely suffered the same fate as you suggest our moon will, and was pulled back together by gravity. It's a lopsided little thing, with huge cliffs and canyons.
But don't worry, scientists have found no asteroids that big on a collision path with the moon so far, and the chances of such an encounter occuring in your lifetime... close to zero.
Hint: don't watch those Discovery channel doom-prediction worst-case-scenario disaster shows. They scare the heck outta you. :D

Answer 3

An impact on the Moon that big would create a shower of smaller pieces, some of which would hit Earth. It might even break the Moon up completely, because that is one big asteroid you are talking about there. Gravity on Earth would just stay the same. Nobody would fall into space. No Earthquakes would happen (on Earth). But the largest asteroid in our solar system, Ceres, is smaller than Texas. And it orbits safely between Mars and Jupiter. Anyway, a larger object would be called a planet. In fact, Ceres IS now classified as a dwarf planet. This was done at the same time and by the same people who demoted Pluto from planet to Dwarf planet.

Answer 4

contrary to what most people are saying, most of the damage done is not going to be from moon debris. Oh sure we'll have chunks of moon rock raining down on us, but it wouldn't cause the real damage.

The real damage would be this: consider the Earth to be like an olympic athlete competing in the hammer throw, with the hammer being the moon. a hammer, if you recall is a metal ball attached to a wire, the athlete spins and spins around building up momentum, then releases it. So the Earth would be like the athlete, the moon like the hammer, and the wire being gravity.

Now imagine what would happen if, all of a sudden, you cut the wire while the athlete was in the middle of spinning it. what would happen? that's right, flip out. Knocked on his behind.

That's what would happen to the Earth. Massive wipe-out. Our planet's tilt is 23 degrees, knocking the moon out might make Africa the new North Pole. Best case scenario is that we stabilize as a none-rotating planet, baked on one side, frozen on the other (though don't plan on living in that thin strip of warmth between the two extremes, the winds would be so ferocious as to make hurricanes look like sissies.) Worse case is that the Earth will become as barren and lifeless as Mars. In other words, be thankful for the Moon. It's the reason life exists on Earth.

Answer 5

Since Texas is six hundred miles wide and Ceres is also six hundred miles in Diameter, they are about the same size! An impact would shatter the asteroid and the Moon into many different sized fragments which would scatter into space in every direction. Some would enter Earth's atmosphere and cause some destruction on its surface. How bad the destruction would depend on the size and number of fragments surviving entry into our atmosphere. It would probably be an extinction even, so you'd better fill your bedroom closet with food and water for an extended period. Don't buy dog food, though. Cook and eat the dog on the first day!
Tsunamis? Only if large fragments fell into the oceans. Earthquakes would probably occur where the largest fragments impacted the land masses.
Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Answer 6

The only known asteroid that size (and now called a dwarf planet) is Ceres. The moon is about 2000 miles in diameter, and Ceres is about 1/4 of that - around 590 miles in diameter. While it likely wouldn't affect the lunar orbit very much (the moon is much more massive), depending on the rate of impact, it could have a lot of effect on Earth.

Debris could start raining down on Earth, after it spiraled around for many months. It's possible some very large pieces would also fall in - but, while they may still cause considerable damage - they wouldn't have the speed of a rogue asteroid or comet, and would likely just hit the Earth's surface (hopefully not on a city), and probably wouldn't explode or cause the sky-blackening that killed the dinosaurs.

Have a nice day.

Answer 7

There are no asteroids the size of Texas, so this scenario cannot happen. The biggest asteroid, Ceres, is about 600 miles in diameter and it is only 1.2% of the mass of the Moon and it is in a regular orbit in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. All near-earth asteroids are much much smaller than this. 99942 Apophis is a mere 320 metres in diameter for example.

I suggest you confine your worries to scenarios that might actually happen, not worry about ones that cannot take place. (Has someone been teling you about NIbiru, also known as Planet X? It doesn't exist!)

The idea that gravity could be suspended is just plain silly. How would the Laws of Physics stop working and why would they do so?

Answer 8

Why are you insulting "kookaburra" when his answer is correct? Don't ask a question and then be rude to the answerer because you can't comprehend what they are telling you.

plus your statement that there could be asteroids "the size of the sun or even bigger" is wrong on so many levels as to be laughable.

Answer 9

First of all, your DOG will die...if this happens..!!
Dont worry about the tsunamis.. there will be no tsunamis at all because this is only because of the moon that tide occurs.. also..earth's gravitational pull will not be effected at all .. not at all... the debris will start rotating around earth like moon does. But the mankind ( and every living thing) will be in extreme danger (or will be completely destroyed).. you shouldnt be scared because none of this is gonna happen till you die ( and your next and next generation)..!!!

Answer 10

I see why you are nicknamed JIGGY! you are doing too much of that jiggy stuff with that burnt spoon and baking soda. Calm down, take a shot of bourbon and pet your dog more often.
if an asteroid the size of Texas replace the moon, I'd stand up, salute, and yell out, REMEMBER THE ALAMO!