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Termyn8or -> RE: We pay NASA to do this? (10/8/2009 9:47:14 PM)
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Even if something had a major impact enough to make the moon go away the effects on Earth would not be so catastrophic. There would be no tides, that's about it. Of course that would hurt sea life which would hurt us, but people have some misconceptions about the theory of orbit. The foremost of which is that the mass of the orbiting object matters. It does not at all.
Without that important fact, a logical mind might go so far as to reason that the Earth and moon are an orbiting mass, and the lack of mass would send us shooting out into space. While it is true that the Earthe and moon are a single mass because they share a single orbital path, remember there are only a few things that matter to achieve a stable orbit.
The mass of the object being orbited (i.e. the sun) which renders it's G force, which we may express as the G force of the Earth being one, but that is a subjective measurement. It can be expressed many ways, and in fact can be expressed simply as mass if the formula is written properly.
The distance of the orbiting object to the one being orbited.
The orbital speed.
The last two render at what point the G force from the orbited object exactly counteracts the centripital force caused by the circular path taken by the orbiting object.
So it does not matter if half the Earth is blown off, as long as what is left stays in place and keeps going around at the same speed, it will orbit.
Simple satellite TV proves the point. The transmitters are about 23,000 miles from the Earth and their orbital speed is locked to the equator. They do not weigh all the same. One may be ten times the mass of another, but as long as they stay put they will still be there, along with some of the junk up there I might add. In this case the orbital speed matches the rotational speed of the Earth, but that is not true of the Earth vs the sun. If you look at the planets in the solar system, the farther out they are, the slower they go.
That is not to say there would be no impact on our environment though. The lack of tides would not be a good thing for aquatic life. Additionally, a buddy of mine used to grow these ummm plants, for medicinal purposes only of course. To get them to "bloom" fully there was a time when the artificial lights were on at night. This would no doubt simulate moonlight. Therefore since that process worked it would be logical to assume that there would be some impact on ground based flora as well. Which is grown outside at least. Most of our food and feed is grown outside. In fact there are species of plants that only open their flowers in the moonlight. I guess they would go extinct.
There is no doubt there would be an impact on many living things, but just how profound they would be is hard to say. Even harder to predict is the specifics.
Of course how many people have to starve to death or lack money for a doctor has an impact as well, so they can afford to do such things. So I basically agree that they should not do it, but who am I to say ?
T
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