A question about the moon

up for anything

My son asked me this evening would it make much difference to the earth if the moon suddenly vanished. I couldn't answer it beyond saying it would have an effect on ocean tides and every night would be very dark.

Would there be any other effects of it not being there (besides possibly on the weather)?

Any input I can relay back to him would be much appreciated.

BULLER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JirKUXsSLtc
There ya go!
If it suddenly vanished; yeah, a fairly big impact!

NUTZZ

On the same topic, this is also quite interesting!

What if the moon was closer?

CO19

Was only thinking this question myself too .

Also why does/what causes the moon to one night be up in the sky then the next night it has disappeared and seems to have moved beside the sun or totally moved around the Earth to the bottom of it when looking at its position through Stellarium and then it re-appears about a month later

Captain Chaos

Because the Moon orbits the Earth every 27.5 days and wobbles as it does so all while we are rotating every 24hrs and the Moon is tidely locked to the Earth and we orbit the Sun every 365.25 days.

Carne

In reality the Moon is moving 1 ½ inches away from Earth each year so it will be gone eventually.

slade_x

Carne wrote: »

In reality the Moon is moving 1 ½ inches away from Earth each year so it will be gone eventually.

No it wont be gone, the moons orbit will continue to increase further until it reaches equilibrium. The moon wont escape the earths influence, as earths angular momentum is being syphoned by the moon through tidal interactions, the earths day (1 complete revolution on its axis) will eventually become equal to the time it will take the moon to orbit the earth (i think estimated figures are 1 and a 1/2 months). However the sun will have left its main sequence and begun its red giant phase fusing its helium store into carbon long before that could happen and then of course ending its cycle eventually blowing off its other shell forming a stellar nebula.

Procyon

The moon helps keep the earth's rotational axis stable. So without the moon, swings of the axis against the ecliptic plane would cause massive climate change, death and destruction etc.

TheDukeOfEarl

Moon, you are my friend.