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If we blew the moon up with nukes (not that we could, but if we could) then it would effectively be the end of life on this planet purely from the amount of debris that would end up hitting us.. ;)

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Thanks lads, I like those answers.

Next question - also moon related. What would the effect be on earth if the moon was to be blown up by nukes?

Nothing much is the honest answer. Aside from any fallout, the rocky debris would still have the same mass as the moon, so would still exert the same gravitational pull. The night sky would probably be brighter as there'd be millions of small rocky fragments for the sun to reflect off. It would pretty much f**k star gazing as well.

If the moon were to just disappear, however, that's a whole different kettle of fish.

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If we blew the moon up with nukes (not that we could, but if we could) then it would effectively be the end of life on this planet purely from the amount of debris that would end up hitting us.. ;)

What's to stop the rocks maintaining their orbit round the Earth? Honest question, Ricardo.

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But if there was no debris (or it missed us/was controlled etc) could the earth survive without the moon or do we need it for some reason?

Also, how come we couldn't nuke the moon?

If there were no moon, there would be no lunar tides. We would still get tides, but since they would follow the sun you would get high tides at mid-day, everywhere, all the time.

The Earth's spin axis slowly wobbles over a period of 26,000 years or so, because of the Sun's pull. The moon absorbs some of this shock and stops it getting out of control. Without the moon, the earth's tilt could go from it's current 22 - 25 degrees to anywhere between 0 and 85 degrees.

If it were zero, we'd have no seasons, 85 degrees is practically the Earth on it's side, which would pretty much turn the Earth into venus. This would happen over millions of years, though.

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But if there was no debris (or it missed us/was controlled etc) could the earth survive without the moon or do we need it for some reason?

Also, how come we couldn't nuke the moon?

The moon is fucking massive, just how much nuclear weapons do you think we have?

That said, without the moon the Earth's orbit would be massively effected changing all sorts of things. It's an odd thing the moon as without it you could argue that life would never have evolved, now we are here and we have the technology to protect ourselves it wouldn't mean we would all die but it would make our existence on this planet considerably harder. Essentially the Earth and all on it have evolved to deal with the effects the moon has on us.

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More fun facts P&B?

How about a storm on Saturn? A hurricane eye has been measure at 1,250 miles across with wind speed reaching 330 mph, although vortexes have been measured up to 7,500 miles across..

saturn-superstorm-617x416.jpg

A 190,000 mile long storm only recently died out when the storm head ran into the tail and it featured lightning which is up to 10,000 times more powerful than anything seen on Earth...

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I was talking to my mother about the moon landings once and she said while it was momentous it was also one of the most disappointing things she'd witnessed. The fact they got there and it was confirmed as being lifeless killed the childhood dreams of there being something else up there. There are only a few on here who were born before they landed on the moon, for everyone else we grew up knowing "little green men" were only fiction.

I am not sure if we will ever realise just what an effect the landings had on people at the time, we just take it for granted.

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Thanks gents, so in essence - if the moon were to be wiped out, it wouldn't really effect earth for millions of years. Nice one, might try and nuke it 8)

I'll throw in one more question seeing as you lads are top notch at answering them

Why is space always portrayed as dark/black? Surely as there is a big fcuk off sun in the solar system it should be bright as anything when you are out there?

Also apparently you can get lightning in space? How is that even possible :wacko:

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Thanks gents, so in essence - if the moon were to be wiped out, it wouldn't really effect earth for millions of years. Nice one, might try and nuke it 8)

I'll throw in one more question seeing as you lads are top notch at answering them

Why is space always portrayed as dark/black? Surely as there is a big fcuk off sun in the solar system it should be bright as anything when you are out there?

Also apparently you can get lightning in space? How is that even possible :wacko:

Basically the dark/ black is because of something I mentioned earlier. Space is VERY sparsely populated by matter, i.e. Suns, planets, moon, meteors, comets, etc. So sparse that it is comparable to a building 20km wide, 20 km high and 20 km long with only a single grain of rice inside. There are vast areas of space that have NOTHING at all in them, the biggest I think I read somewhere was about a billion light years across. Just a total black void.

You can certainly get lightning on planets that have active atmospheres. See my previous post..

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Yeah but not just lightning on other planets, but lightning storms in the middle of space!?

You're maybe thinking of blasars or quasars?

Energy has to have a source.

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Is everyone convinced we did land on the moon? What about the Van Allen belt for instance?

Not saying I don't beleive it happened....just querying....

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Pie & Bovril mobile app

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Thanks gents, so in essence - if the moon were to be wiped out, it wouldn't really effect earth for millions of years. Nice one, might try and nuke it 8)

It would effect the Earth immediately, not sure where you got the idea we'd have millions of years before it did.. :unsure:

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Didn't the Americans consider setting off a nuke on the moon as a show of strength during the cold war? 

That's another reason to query the moon landings.....even a flare (or something similar) would be clearly visable from Earth.....

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Pie & Bovril mobile app

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