Feel guilty? You should! It is our fault (the Earths) that cracks are opening up in the Moon’s surface.
Basically our gravity puts stress (tidal forces) on the Moon.
There are several possible outcomes from this – none of which are particularly good, but will this occur in our lifetime?
Well, there are esialy three things that can go on with the Moon;
1) the Moon breaks apart from the tidal forces of the Earth.
2) The Moon (which is moving away from the Earth 25 cm each year) could leave us.
3) The Sun will enter its Red Giant phase and destroy both the Earth & the Moon.
About 1) All the bombs (nuclear and otherwise) in the world would not be enough to dent the moon let alone ''blow it up'' & the Tidal forces of the Earth are no better and certainly do not pose a problem.
However, suppose it did - provided the population of the earth survived the rain of debris pouring down after the Moon disintegrated then the only immediate thing that would happen to the earth would be a reduction in tidal range and the loss of extra high and extra low tides (the Moon causes 60% of the tides the sun 40%). Longer term the tilt of earth's axis will be less stable There would be no tides which would wreak havoc with ocean ecosystems. Animals who rely on night time vison for hunting, as wel as their predators would eventually die off. Having several entre populations of animals, land and sea die off there would be ripple effects up the food chain, and in ecologies where these animals has special roles. The night time pollinating moths would unlikely be able to function, which would lead to die off in both the insect and plant populations where this behavior is present. AND the worst part – there would no longer be those beautiful eclipses... BUT we don’t need to worry about this one.
About 2) The Moon is moving away at the breakneck speed of 25cm per year. The sun-Earth L2 point is 940,000 km from Earth and the moon is currently 384,400 km from Earth. As the moon gets further away, the rate of its recession will slow since the tidal interactions with Earth get weaker. So some rough calculations and a date can be set for 2.2 billion years. So at least we are okay and our kids and grandkid, great-grandkids…
About 3) The other troubling possibility is that during the red giant phase the Sun will extend out until its atmosphere envelops the Earth and the Moon, which will both begin to be affected by gas drag-the space through which they orbit will contain more molecules. Actually – some guestimates for the Red Giant phase suggest that as far as Jupiter will become engulfed by the Red Giant. But that’s not due for around 50 billion years, so basically none of the three situations become a worry.
***Point*** This demonstrates the various changes in our Solar System and Galaxy and although most of these will not occur until you & I are star dust, other occurrence may & most likely will. This is just one of the reasons we need to become multi-planet inhabitors or colonists. This way no matter what, multiples of the human species survive.***
No comments:
Post a Comment