what would happen to the earth of the moon suddenly got hit by a meteor?

Answer 1

The moon gets hit by meteors all the time. What do you think all those craters are?

I guess you mean a big one? Do you? If so, you need to be more explicit in your question. You obviously know very little about meteoroids and asteroids, except what you read in tabloids and on the internet, or what kids spread around.

The moon has some pretty massive craters caused by some large impacts in the past. The Earth is still here. Life is still here. Over the course of the last few millions years, nothing hitting moon will have unduly affected the Earth.

Most of the asteroids that come close to the Earth/moon system are only meters to several kilometers wide. The bigger ones would cause havoc on Earth, but are very rare.

But even if an asteroid of a few kms wide hit the moon, the worst that would happen on Earth would be a fantastic meteor show from the debris kicked up by the explosion on the moon.

I advise reading some real science and not hype pseudo-science.

Answer 2

The Moon is an anchor, keeping Earth's rotation around its axis stable and constant. A meteor is an asteroid which burns in a planet or moon's atmosphere, without reaching the surface. A meteorite is an asteroid which hits its surface. Since the Moon has no atmosphere, it can't have meteors, only meteorites. There are two general circumstances: In the first, it might be broken by a large meteorite, in which case the Earth could form rings and the meteorite showers and tide surges might give us a "quick" end. The second is this: It is a known fact that the Moon is slowly leaving Earth's orbit at a rate of approx. 1cm per year. This can be accelerated if a celestial body of the right size were to hit the Moon in the right angle and accelerate its departure. As the Moon escapes its pull, Earth's motion is expected to change. It might start to wobble. This motion has been observed on Mars, which lacks large enough satellites to anchor and balance it. The weather will loose its constance, the seasons will shift frequently and the night-day temperature differences will increase, ranging from virtually - 100 *C at night to + 100* C at noon. Mars had been once covered by rivers and seas. It is thought that the moon or planet balancing it had been destroyed, and it caused its climate to shift and the water to evaporate or freeze beneath the ground. This might happen on Earth, and it would probably put an end to life. So, if the Moon is lost, it is pretty much the beginning of the end for us.

Answer 3

A "meteor" is a manifestation in Earth's atmosphere: ram pressure in front of the incoming rock heats up the air to the point that it emits light.
The object, before entering the atmosphere and becoming a meteor, is called a meteoroid. Meteoroids are rather small.

If one where to hit the Moon, nothing would happen to Earth. We are convinced that many hit the Moon every day.

There are occasional reports of astronomers seeing something hit the lunar surface and there are a few (very rare) pictures of the flash produced by the impact. The kinetic energy of the rock is transformed into heat as the speed goes from "astronomical" to zero in a fraction of a second.

If something bigger (a bolide or a small asteroid) were to hit the Moon, we may have to correct our maps of lunar craters. This may "annoy" a few people.

To have an impact on Earth, the object would have to do something drastic to the Moon, like increase its mass by a large fraction or break it up. This would require a very large objects, so large that it would already be catalogued somewhere. Since all catalogued objects are tracked to see if they will ever come close to Earth, then we would know if one were on its way.

To put it another way: there are no objects in the Perseid stream big enough to change the nature of the Moon in regards to its effect on Earth. However, some may hit the Moon and be visible to very stute observers.

Answer 4

The moon regularly gets hit by meteors, anything below asteroid size we wouldn't even notice. If say a kilometer diameter asteroid hit the moon it would cause a spectacular flash and send debris into orbit around the moon since there is no atmosphere, this debris would probably create a ring.
A small probability occurance would produce a meteor shower on earth,composed of debris that reached escape velocity on exactly the right vector. There is a very small chance of a major impact on earth.

Answer 5

The Moon gets hit by meteors all the time, that's why the surface is so cratered. The Moon actually helps protect the Earth by pulling some of them away from the Earth.

Answer 6

The moon gets hit by meteors all the time. That's why it's covered in craters.
In fact, the earth also gets hit by meteors all the time too, but they generally burn up in the atmosphere before they ever reach the ground.
If you have a clear sky tonight, look to the skies as there's going to be a meteor shower, and it should be quite impressive.

Answer 7

Nothing would happen to the Earth as the moon has been struck by meteors many times to no effect on Earth.

Answer 8

It would depend on the size of the meteor but on average. Considering the moon has been being hit with meteors for all time, absolutely nothing would happen.

Answer 9

The moon gets hit by meteors all the time. Its surface is full of the scars that meteors have left. so far, not much effect on the Earth.

Answer 10

Depends on the size, velocity and angle that the meteor hits at. It happens all the time with small ones. A larger one at the right angle, and velocity could rain destruction on the earth, block the sunlight etc. And of course, a super large one at the right velocity and angle could shatter the moon and reduce the earth to molten magma again. And a planet cracker could carom off and reduce earth and moon to a new asteroid belt. Einstein said, "God does not play billiards with the universe." My instant response when I heard that was, "But he does play pool with the solar system." I had only recently seen the photos of Mercury.
EDIT: sorry that was "God does not play dice with the universe."