Global killer, a different take

[xtreme2134]

hello all, I am new to posting on here but have been reading the message board for some time now.<br /><br />Anyways there is always talk of a global killer hitting planet Earth but what if it were to impact the moon? Could the moon withstand an object of that size? What if the object hit with enough force to break the moon apart and destroy it? That would be a pretty incredible sight and might be worse than the planet itself being hit directly. We would have giant chunks of the moon raining down on us. <br /><br />What do you guys and galls think?

 

[Kalstang]

<font color="yellow">Anyways there is always talk of a global killer hitting planet Earth but what if it were to impact the moon? Could the moon withstand an object of that size?</font><br /><br />Would depend on the size of the "killer" of course. I don't think that if an astroid the size of Texas would break the moon apart but an astroid the size of Australia prolly could. If this were to happen it would also depend on the direction that it got hit from on how it would affect the Earth. No matter what it would affect the Earth but the degree would depend on the direction...(I think anyways). As to the giant chunks of the moon raining down on us, whats the difference between that and a global killer? We'd be screwed blued and tatooed from either one. Only difference is that we would at least have one hell of a show before we all died.<br /><br />BTW, Welcome to the SDC! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#ffff00"><p><font color="#3366ff">I have an answer for everything...you may not like the answer or it may not satisfy your curiosity..but it will still be an answer.</font> <br /><font color="#ff0000">"Imagination is more important then Knowledge" ~Albert Einstien~</font> <br /><font color="#cc99ff">Guns dont kill people. People kill people</font>.</p></font><p><font color="#ff6600">Solar System</font></p> </div>

 

[weeman]

If raining chunks of Moon didn't slam into Earth, there would still be long-term consquences for our planet if the Moon no longer existed. The Moon helps stabilize Earth's tilt on its axis so that it doesn't wobble out of control. Without it, Earth might wobble much more as it spins, causing seasons and climates to change.<br /><br />Who knows, it's possible that the hot and dry lands of the Sahara Desert would become snow-covered and icy, similar to the Arctic. Just one possibility of how it could change.<br /><br />So, if raining chunks of rock didn't cause a massive extinction, the absence of the Moon very well could.<br /><br />Many major extinctions have already happened in Earth's past. The KT boundry (the extinction of the dinosaurs) isn't even believed to be the largest by many scientists. <br /><br />Another one is coming, it's just a matter of when. A thousand years from now, a million years from now, a hundred million years from now. Who knows! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>I don't think that if an astroid the size of Texas would break the moon apart but an astroid the size of Australia prolly could.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />I have no idea what size impactor would be required to fragment the Moon, but I'm sure there could be signicificant "splash damage", at the very least, from a Texas-sized impactor.<br /><br />BTW, the dwarf planet 1 Ceres is 933 km across. This is somewhat smaller than Texas (in width), and there is no larger near-Earth object. At least, not one anybody knows about, and near-Earth space is fairly well studied. So a bigger impactor would probably have to be a damoclid or something. (Damoclids are in a gray area between asteroids and comets.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[weeman]

<font color="yellow"> Only difference is that we would at least have one hell of a show before we all died. </font><br /><br />I would have to agree with Kalstang. At least it would be a cool way to die! Much cooler than some slow, lonely death of cancer, war, or a car crash! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>