Destruction of the Moon

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The destruction of the Moon as it appears in the 2002 film The Time Machine

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 1.2 × 1029 J.[2][3][4] This equals a bit less than 600 billion 50-megaton nuclear bombs, such as the Tsar Bomba,[5][4][2][6] 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.[7]

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,[8] a quarter of the size of the current spring tide.[9] The sudden disappearance of the Moon however could release water pressure and create large potentially catstrophic waves around the oceans.[8]

The reduction of tides could have profound negative consequences on coastal ecosystems.[10] Tides also help to drive ocean currents; without the Moon, weather extremes and major weather events would be more common.[10]

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.[9] However, their sheer quantity could lead nonetheless to substantial atmospheric heating, possibly leading to extinction of life on Earth.[4][6]

Axial tilt

In 1993 numerical simulations suggested that the Moon is necessary to keep the Earth's axial tilt stable. Without the Moon the axial tilt of Earth could therefore oscillate chaotically from 0° to 45° on the scale of tens of thousands of years, possibly reaching 85° on timescales of several million years[11], with severe climatic consequences.[9][4][6]

More recent studies however suggested that, even without the Moon, Earth's axial tilt could be relatively stable on the scale of hundreds of millions of years.[12]

Eclipses

Without the Moon, neither solar or lunar eclipses would exist.[9]

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.[13] Apart from being practically unfeasible[5], Abian's claims have no scientific basis— destroying the moon would actually cause natural disasters.[8]

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.[14] The capture of Triton by Neptune possibly destroyed the previous moons of Neptune.[15] 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.[16]

Outside the Solar System, exomoons might collide with planets, removing life from them. [17]

In fiction

See also: Moon in science fiction

The destruction of the Moon features in several works, mostly of science fiction.[1] Examples include:

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Davis, Lauren (23 September 2012). "Who destroyed the Moon best?". Gizmodo. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  2. ^ a b Ward, Cassidy (5 December 2023). "IF THE MOON DISAPPEARED, WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR EARTH?". SyFy. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  3. ^ a b Cain, Fraser (17 July 2015). "How could we destroy the moon?". Phys.org. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e Paoletta, Rae (10 July 2017). "What Would Happen If We Blew Up the Moon?". Gizmodo. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  5. ^ a b Helman, Christopher (26 November 2012). "U.S. Planned Cold War Mission To Blow Up The Moon? Is That Even Possible?". Forbes. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  6. ^ a b c "What would happen if we blew up the Moon?". BBC Science Focus. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ a b c d Siegel, Ethan (2 March 2017). "7 Ways Earth Would Change If Our Moon Were Destroyed". Forbes. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  10. ^ a b McFall-Johnsen, Morgan (7 May 2018). "What would happen if the moon suddenly disappeared?". Popular Science. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  11. ^ Laskar, J.; Robutel, P. (1993). "The chaotic obliquity of the planets". Nature. 361 (6413): 608–612. Bibcode:1993Natur.361..608L. doi:10.1038/361608a0.
  12. ^ Lissauer, Jack J.; Barnes, Jason W.; Chambers, John E. (2012). "Obliquity variations of a moonless Earth". Icarus. 217 (1): 77–87. Bibcode:2012Icar..217...77L. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.013.
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ Beckwith, Walter (19 September 2022). "Destruction of Saturn's Former Moon May Explain Planet's Tilt and Young Rings". AAAS. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  15. ^ Siegel, Ethan (27 August 2020). "How Neptune's Triton Destroyed Nearly All Of Its Moons". Forbes. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Hansen, Bradley M S. (2023). "Consequences of dynamically unstable moons in extrasolar systems". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 520: 761–772. arXiv:2210.02603. doi:10.1093/mnras/stac2847.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ Jane, Charlie (4 February 2008). "Strip Mining Shatters the Moon". Gizmodo. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  20. ^ Lee, Noah S. (19 April 2013). "Film review: 'Oblivion' is good mix of sci-fi story, visuals". The Coast News. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  21. ^ Brew, Simon (4 October 2014). "Doctor Who series 8: Kill The Moon review". The Den of Geek. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  22. ^ Poole, Steven (13 May 2015). "Seveneves by Neal Stephenson – a truly epic disaster novel". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  23. ^ Craig, David (31 July 2020). "The Umbrella Academy season 1 recap: Did the world end as predicted?". Elle. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
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