What would happen if?

Question

what would happen if the moon disappeared? what would the effect be on the earth if the moon didn`t exist?

Answer 1

The first thing we would notice is darker nights and smaller tides. Then many animals and insects would be upset because they rely on the moon for guidance. The orbit and momentum of the earth would be affected because the earth and the moon pull on each other as they go around the sun. I think the earth would speed up and go away from the sun, or at least put it into a more elliptical orbit. That would kill everything on the planet.
Here are some interesting facts about the moon:
1. It is gradually moving away from the earth at a rate of one inch per year

2. It is causing the earth's rotation to slow down at a rate of one second per one-thousand days.

3. It goes around the earth once every 29.53 days but rotates on its axis at the same rate. That is why we only see one side of the moon.

Finally everyone on earth would freak out if the moon just disappeared one day. You would, too.

Answer 2

The most immediate effect would be the tides. The surface of the sea (ignoring land) is a sort of egg shape, with the longer axis pointing towards the Moon. That's because the Moon's gravity draws some sea towards it, so parts of the Earth pointing towards the Moon get high tide. Now, if the Moon suddenly disappeared, we'd lose the tides. The sea would suddenly fall back into place, and there'd be massive world-wide repeated tidal waves (tsunami) until the sea calms down again. This could last for several days, and would wipe out populated coastal areas.

This sounds nasty enough, but the other possible consequence is even worse, and on a much longer time scale. The Earth's rotation about its axis is pretty stable. The position of the poles doesn't vary much with time. This stability is because of the Moon's gravitational influence on the Earth. Without the Moon, the axial rotation would become unstable and the Earth may start rotating in random directions, and the positions of the poles changing rapidly and unpredictably over periods of just a few hundred years (a short time in astronomy). No part of the Earth's surface would achieve a stable climate. What is now tropical could become polar in 100 years time. With all climates changing so rapidly, there's no chance for life to ever become established. There is evidence that this process is happening on Venus and Mars, neither of which have significant moons, and it has been proposed that this chaotic rotation either prevented life from forming on these planets, or killed it.

Without the Moon, all life on Earth would eventually perish.

Answer 3

The tides would not exist and many of the ocean currents would become like a sewer. Leave the moon alone as the moon is also a meteor deflector. Many rocks have hit the earth instead of the earth.

Answer 4

We would have no tidal effects, except for tidal waves from Earthquakes. There would be no activity in the oceans for currents, the ocean would be one giant pool of putrid, and nasty liquid.
Not too mention all the star gazing scientists would not know what to do.

Answer 5

There would be no tides.

Without tides The Earth would spin much faster, thus the day would be much shorter.

The earth's faster rotation would mean that wind patterns would be much, much stronger.

Answer 6

THE BIGGEST WOULD BE THE LOSS OF THE MOST EXTREME TIDES. THE MOON CAUSES THE BIGGEST TIDES FOLLOWED BY THE SUN.