What would happen if the moon was struck by an asteroid?

If the 400-meter-wide asteroid were to impact the moon, it would kick up enough dust — and that dust would moving at a high enough speed — for a small quantity to escape the moon’s gravity and coast all the way to Earth, 240,000 miles away, Yeomans said.

What happens if something hits the moon?

At regular speed, the flash lasted four-tenths of a second. The rock that collided with the moon was only about 10 inches across. If such a rock were to head toward Earth, it would burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere and never reach the ground. If that were to happen, the moon wouldn’t survive the impact.

What would happen without moon?

The moon influences life as we know it on Earth. It influences our oceans, weather, and the hours in our days. Without the moon, tides would fall, nights would be darker, seasons would change, and the length of our days would alter.

What happens if the Moon explodes?

Destroying the Moon would send debris to Earth, but it might not be life-exterminating. If the blast were weak enough, the debris would re-form into one or more new moons; if it were too strong, there would be nothing left; of just the right magnitude, and it would create a ringed system around Earth.

What would happen if the Moon was hit by an asteroid?

The Moon is very big, and any small object hitting it would have very little effect on its motion around the Earth, because the Moon’s own momentum would overwhelm that of the impact. Most asteroid collisions would result in large craters and little else; even the largest asteroid known, Ceres, wouldn’t budge the Moon.

What would happen if a large rock hit the Moon?

The rock that collided with the moon was only about 10 inches across. If such a rock were to head toward Earth, it would burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere and never reach the ground. It would take another nearly moon-sized object to actually move the moon, Clark Chapman, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute told Popsci.

What would happen if the Moon hit Earth with an egg?

If that were to happen, the moon wouldn’t survive the impact. Former Popsci writer Sandeep Ravindran likens it to “whacking an egg with a golf club,” which could send chunks of the moon hurtling toward Earth, and potentially jeopardizing life on Earth as a result of disruption to the lunar cycle.

What would happen to the Moon if a nuclear bomb hit it?

So detonating a 1 MT nuclear bomb would displace (optimistically, rock will be harder to move than soil) 100 MT or 10$^{11}$ kg of rock, or a fraction of 10$^{-11}$ of the moon’s mass. Also, most of that mass will stay on the Moon, so the total gravitational pull of the Moon will remain the same.