What Happens if the Moon Crashes into Earth?

Summary

This thought-provoking scenario explores the question: what if the Moon crashes into Earth? It explains how the Moon stays in orbit due to its sideways motion and what would happen if its orbit decays. Over the course of a year, tides would rise catastrophically, causing widespread destruction, displacing billions, and triggering volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Eventually, the Moon would reach the Roche limit, disintegrating into a ring around Earth, ending the apocalyptic turmoil but leaving behind new challenges for any survivors.

Takeaways

• 🌕 The Moon orbits the Earth due to its sideways speed, preventing it from crashing into us.
• 🌍 Gravity pulls the Moon towards Earth, but its high speed causes it to fall sideways, maintaining a stable orbit.
• 🚀 Altering the Moon's speed would change its orbit, but this requires an enormous force.
• 🧙‍♂️ In the scenario, magic is used to slow the Moon's orbit, causing it to spiral towards Earth over a year.
• 🌊 Month 1: As the Moon moves closer, tides rise, causing coastal flooding.
• 🏙️ Month 2: Massive 10-meter tides displace billions of people and disrupt global infrastructure.
• 📡 Month 3: Satellites become unstable due to the Moon's proximity, disrupting global communication.
• 🌋 Months 4-5: Earth experiences massive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and severe environmental damage due to the Moon's gravitational forces.
• 🌖 Months 6-7: The Moon appears stationary in the sky, while tides freeze and Earth experiences intensified earthquakes and volcanic activity.
• 💥 Month 12: The Moon reaches the Roche limit, disintegrates into a ring around Earth, ending the apocalyptic events but possibly causing new climate changes.

Q & A

Why isn't the moon already crashing into Earth?

The moon stays in orbit due to its sideways motion (or velocity), which balances Earth's gravitational pull. This sideways motion causes the moon to 'fall' around Earth rather than straight toward it, allowing it to orbit rather than crash.

What would happen if the moon's orbit was slowed down?

If the moon’s orbit was slowed down significantly, it would begin spiraling toward Earth due to the unbalanced gravitational pull, eventually leading to a collision.

How would the moon crashing into Earth affect ocean tides?

As the moon moves closer, tides would become drastically higher. Initially, this would result in daily flooding of coastal cities, but over time, tides could rise as high as 100 meters, submerging vast areas of land.

What impact would the moon's approach have on global infrastructure?

As the tides increase, coastal infrastructure such as ports, oil refineries, and internet cables would be destroyed. This would lead to global disruptions in shipping, communications, and energy supplies, causing societal collapse.

What effect would the moon's proximity have on earthquakes and volcanoes?

The gravitational forces exerted by the moon would squeeze the Earth's crust, leading to intense earthquakes and triggering volcanic eruptions. This would cause widespread destruction and alter the global climate.

How would the moon’s presence affect satellites as it nears Earth?

As the moon gets closer, its gravitational pull would disturb the orbits of communication and navigation satellites, causing them to malfunction or fall out of orbit, disrupting global communication systems.

What is the Roche limit and how does it affect the moon?

The Roche limit is the distance where Earth's gravity becomes stronger than the moon’s self-gravity, causing the moon to break apart. When the moon reaches this point, it would disintegrate into debris, forming a ring system around Earth.

How would life on Earth be impacted after the moon disintegrates?

While the moon’s disintegration would end the severe tidal effects, the resulting debris could cause intense meteor showers and block sunlight, potentially leading to global cooling or even boiling oceans, depending on the amount of moondust entering the atmosphere.

What would the sky look like after the moon disintegrates?

After the moon disintegrates, Earth would be surrounded by a beautiful ring system similar to Saturn's. These rings would illuminate the night sky and create spectacular meteor showers as moondust falls to Earth.

Could humans survive after the moon crashes into Earth?

Survival would be extremely difficult due to the widespread destruction, climate changes, and natural disasters caused by the moon’s approach. However, some humans may survive in bunkers, submarines, or on high mountains, though rebuilding civilization would be a major challenge.