If the moon suddenly disappeared, hypothetically of course, would Earth begin a movement towards the sun?

Question

I'm thinking this may happen, because you can say that the Earth and moon are one body becuase they are connected by gravity, and so if the body suddenly lost a lot of its mass, this would decrease the Earths momentum, and so our balanced orbit around the Sun would be lost, and we'd begin falling towards the Sun... is this correct?

We are doing about circular motion in A2 physics.
Surely if the Earth and Moon are connected by gravity (just as every molecule on Earth is connected by forces) then we can take the two bodies as one body both travelling around the Sun.

Answer 1

I don't believe so, because the mass of the moon is quite small compared to the earth, and since the earth began orbiting the sun before the moon was created, the motion of the earth should not be affected significantly

Answer 2

Well, the Earth is already moving slowly towards the Sun, and always has been, only it's really too slow a movement for anyone to bother about it much. However, there are plenty of planets without moons, and they manage to keep a constant orbit, so I don't think that we would.

If the major theories are correct, then we were already orbiting the Sun for millions of years before the moon started orbiting Earth, so removing the moon would have little effect on our orbit.

Answer 3

No. The influence of the Moon is thought to be necessary for life to develop in the first place, but now that it has developed, taking away that influence would not end life suddenly. But over many (millions?) of years life may gradually decline as the tides aren't mixing the ocean waters any more and the Earth's 23.5 degree axial tilt becomes unstable without the stabilizing Moon, messing up the seasons.

Answer 4

The Earths axis is tilted about 23.5 degrees with respect to the plane of the orbit. The moon stabilizes this angle and keeps it very close to 23.5 degrees. This gives us the seasons. If you take away the moon you will no longer have tides and the the tilt angle of 23.5 degrees will begin to vary extremely.

The Earth will not move towards the Sun.

Answer 5

No. All bodies fall at the same rate regardless of their mass. If the Earth-Moon system were to lose a lot of mass, it would make no difference at all to its orbit around the sun, because all bodies fall (around the sun, say) at the same rate.

Answer 6

And where will it suddenly go to?

Anyway, I am not convinced. Not all the planets have a natural satellite, and some have several. If we didn't have one, based on the fact that the other moonless planets remain in solar orbit, so would we, though the effect the moon's gravity has on us would be gone, such as the tides.

Answer 7

The tides would go funky, (if there would be any, that is), everyone's "mojo" would be far outta whack, and the earth's orbit might go wild, like a top flying off the edge of the table, and run into something else. Then "WHACK!" we're all gone.

: )

Unless you plan on becoming Marvin the Martian, "I'm going to blow up the Earth," with a tiny stick o' dynamite, I don't think I'll be worrying about my mojo going looney, like me...

Answer 8

The moon is a satellite of the earth not part of its mass so if it went away , it would just go away. There would be affects from it's absence but one would not be to fall toward the sun.

Answer 9

Nope. The velocity to maintain a particular orbit doesn't depend on a planet's mass. (Mass isn't mentioned in Kepler's laws for planetary motion in the Solar System.)

Answer 10

Nope. Take the moon away, and our tides would be much, much lower... but we'd orbit the sun like we always have.