Destruction of the Moon
The destruction of the Moon is a hypothetical global catastrophe scenario explored in fiction[1] and, informally, by scientists.
Energy required
Completely destroying the Moon to avoid the debris reassembling into a satellite would require an amount of energy larger than the Moon gravitational binding energy, estimated to be 12*1028 J.[2][3][4] This equals a bit less than 600 billion 50-megaton nuclear bombs, such as the Tsar Bomba,[4][2][5] roughly equivalent to the full energy output by the Sun in six minutes.[4] For comparison, the impact that created the South Pole-Aitken basin, the largest lunar impact structure, had an energy of roughly 4 * 1026 J, 300 times smaller.[6]
Bringing the Moon's orbit within the Roche limit of Earth (within about 18,000 km (11,000 mi)) would also destroy it.[3]
Effects of the Moon's disappearance
Tides
Without the Moon, tides would still happen—the Sun's gravity also causes tides—but they would be substantially reduced,[7] a quarter of the size of the current spring tide.[8] The sudden disappearance of the Moon however could release water pressure and create large potentially catstrophic waves around the oceans.[7]
The reduction of tides could have profound negative consequences on coastal ecosystems.[9] Tides also help to drive ocean currents; without the Moon, weather extremes and major weather events would be more common.[9]
Debris impact
Violent destruction of the Moon would likely bring substantial debris to impact Earth. Such debris would be slower, and thus each debris fragment have only about 1% of the kinetic energy with respect to an asteroid of the same size, therefore their impact would be less destructive.[8] However, their sheer quantity could lead nonetheless to substantial atmospheric heating due to friction, possibly leading to extinction of life on Earth.[4][5]
Axial tilt
The Moon is probably necessary to keep the Earth's axial tilt stable. Without the Moon the axial tilt of Earth would oscillate chaotically beyond 45° on the scale of tens of thousands of years, possibly reaching 85°, with severe climatic consequences.[8][4][5]
Eclipses
Without the Moon, neither solar or lunar eclipses would exist.[8]
Actual proposals
The mathematician and Usenet personality Alexander Abian proposed that the destruction of the Moon would stabilize seasons and eliminate natural disasters from Earth.[10] Apart from being practically unfeasible, Abian's claims have no scientific basis— destroying the moon would actually cause natural disasters.[7]
Destruction of other moons
Natural satellites can and do get destroyed. The rings of Saturn possibly originated from the destruction of a former moon, called Chrysalis.[11] The capture of Triton by Neptune possibly destroyed the previous moons of Neptune.[12] In turn, tidal interactions also cause Triton's orbit, which is already closer to Neptune than the Moon is to Earth, to gradually decay further; predictions are that 3.6 billion years from now, Triton will pass within Neptune's Roche limit and be destroyed.[13]
Outside the Solar System, exomoons might collide with planets, removing life from them. [14]
In fiction
The destruction of the Moon features in several works, mostly of science fiction.[1] Examples include:
- R. C. Sherriff novel The Hopkins Manuscript [15]
- The 2002 film The Time Machine[16]
- The 2013 film Oblivion[17]
- The Doctor Who episode "Kill the Moon"[18]
- Neal Stephenson novel Seveneves[19]
- The season 1 finale of the Netflix series Umbrella Academy[20]
See also
References
- ^ a b Davis, Lauren (23 September 2012). "Who destroyed the Moon best?". Gizmodo. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ a b Ward, Cassidy (5 December 2023). "IF THE MOON DISAPPEARED, WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR EARTH?". SyFy. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ a b Cain, Fraser (17 July 2015). "How could we destroy the moon?". Phys.org. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Paoletta, Rae (10 July 2017). "What Would Happen If We Blew Up the Moon?". Gizmodo. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ^ a b c "What would happen if we blew up the Moon?". BBC Science Focus. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ Potter, R.W.K.; Collins, G.S.; Kiefer, W.S.; McGovern, P.J.; Kring, D.A. (2012). "Constraining the size of the South Pole-Aitken basin impact". Icarus. 220 (2): 730–743. Bibcode:2012Icar..220..730P. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.05.032.
- ^ a b c Turney, Drew (19 April 2023). "A Brief History of the Ludicrous (And Misguided) Plots to Blow Up the Moon". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ^ a b c d Siegel, Ethan (2 March 2017). "7 Ways Earth Would Change If Our Moon Were Destroyed". Forbes. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ a b McFall-Johnsen, Morgan (7 May 2018). "What would happen if the moon suddenly disappeared?". Popular Science. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ "YIKES!: GOODNIGHT, MOON Shoot the moon? Hell, says Prof. Alexander Abian, why not just blow it up?;". People. 1991-06-24. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- ^ Beckwith, Walter (19 September 2022). "Destruction of Saturn's Former Moon May Explain Planet's Tilt and Young Rings". AAAS. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ Siegel, Ethan (27 August 2020). "How Neptune's Triton Destroyed Nearly All Of Its Moons". Forbes. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ Chyba, C. F.; Jankowski, D. G.; Nicholson, P. D. (July 1989). "Tidal evolution in the Neptune-Triton system". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 219 (1–2): L23–L26. Bibcode:1989A&A...219L..23C.
- ^ Hansen, Bradley M S. (2023). "Consequences of dynamically unstable moons in extrasolar systems". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 520: 761–772. doi:10.1093/mnras/stac2847.
- ^ Nevala-Lee, Alec (2 January 2023). "In the 'Cozy Catastrophe' Novel, the End of the World Is Not So Bad". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ Jane, Charlie (4 February 2008). "Strip Mining Shatters the Moon". Gizmodo. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ Lee, Noah S. (19 April 2013). "Film review: 'Oblivion' is good mix of sci-fi story, visuals". The Coast News. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ Brew, Simon (4 October 2014). "Doctor Who series 8: Kill The Moon review". The Den of Geek. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ Poole, Steven (13 May 2015). "Seveneves by Neal Stephenson – a truly epic disaster novel". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ Craig, David (31 July 2020). "The Umbrella Academy season 1 recap: Did the world end as predicted?". Elle. Retrieved 17 March 2024.