What will happen to the Earth and to us if the Moon suddenly disappears from the sky? To some, this question will seem rather strange, but there is every reason to talk about a very real scenario for the disappearance of a satellite of our planet as a result of a cosmic catastrophe.
Asteroids of various sizes now and then sweep past our planet, threatening us with a global catastrophe. It has long been known that in the history of our planet there have been cases when huge boulders crashed into the surface of the Earth, fell into the oceans. Dinosaurs are believed to have become extinct as a result of one such collision 65 million years ago. We may well share their fate, because someday the collision of our planet with an asteroid will become inevitable.
American scientists David Morrison and Clark Chapman figuratively compared the Earth to a target that "hovers in a cosmic dash." About 150 giant craters have already been found on our planet, which clearly indicate that not all asteroids fly past our planet, there are also those that crash into its surface. According to Chapman and Morrison, every 500 thousand years, due to the fall of asteroids on the Earth, a global catastrophe occurs. And every 100 million years, according to statistics, asteroids 10 km or more in size fall to the Earth, such collisions threaten to almost completely destroy humanity and the entire animal world.
Scientists have not yet identified all potentially dangerous asteroids for the Earth, but even those that are already known (about 150 of them have already been discovered) force us to take seriously the possibility of the death of our civilization due to a cosmic catastrophe. In November 2011, a 400 meter asteroid 2005 YU55 flew near our planet, scientists from NASA then calculated the potential consequences of a collision of a space body of this size with the Earth. According to their calculations, a direct impact on the Earth would cause an earthquake with a magnitude of 7, but the wave of a tsunami triggered by the fall of the asteroid would reach a height of 22 meters. The funnel would be 6.4 kilometers in diameter and 518 meters deep.
Probably, many have read or heard about the asteroid Apophis, which may well crash into our Earth in 2036. At the end of last year, it turned out that, in addition to Apophis, our planet is threatened by two more large asteroids. According to the calculations of scientists, these boulders may collide with the Earth in the next few decades. In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Vitaly Lopota, President of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, said: “What can happen to the Earth in this case, there is no need to explain: a global-scale catastrophe!”
Although he noted that the likelihood of collisions with these asteroids is small, it is still better to change their trajectory just in case. To do this, it is necessary to create booster rockets with a carrying capacity of about 70 tons, capable of putting a spacecraft on an interception trajectory, having the means and energy reserves necessary for this purpose. According to the scientist, space tugs with a nuclear or solar power plant may be needed to change the trajectory of asteroids. Perhaps the change in the trajectory of asteroids will be carried out using thermonuclear charges.
Apophis is no longer dangerous?
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This asteroid has been written and spoken about for more than one year. An object weighing more than a million tons, potentially dangerous for the Earth, may well cause a real end of the world, because a collision with it would be equivalent to the explosion of thousands of atomic bombs. According to calculations, in 2029, Apophis should approach the Earth at a distance of about 40 thousand km. There are many stationary satellites at about this distance from the planet, which is very close by cosmic standards.
However, in 2029, Apophis must still bypass the Earth, but about the next approach of the asteroid with it in 2036, scientists have quite natural fears. It has been calculated that with a probability of 1: 250,000, Apophis in 2036 could collide with our planet. On January 9, 2013, this asteroid flew at a distance of 14.46 million km from our planet. This allowed scientists to make new calculations and assess the potential threat of Apophis to our planet in the coming decades.
According to the calculations of American researchers, in 2029 the asteroid will fly at a distance of 37.6 thousand km from the center of the Earth. It can be observed in the sky with the naked eye in the form of a bright star. No collision will happen, it is worth remembering what some scientists considered potentially dangerous even in 2029. Most importantly, scientists have come to the conclusion that no radical change in the trajectory of Apophis will occur. It is very important! Indeed, earlier many scientists believed that in 2029 Apophis, having flown through the so-called keyhole, will change its flight trajectory and in 2036 will threaten the Earth.
So, it turns out that now we can completely forget about Apophis and calm down? Alas, it's not worth relaxing yet. Think of the two new asteroids that, according to scientists, potentially threaten our planet, and I would not rush to discount Apophis itself. The cosmos is full of surprises, something may well change the trajectory of the asteroid, and in the calculations, scientists may not have taken into account some factor. With the same Apophis, a lot of calculations were already voiced, which contradicted each other.
"Lichiko" in scars
If the Earth, using the processes of weathering and erosion, as well as plants, successfully heals the scars received from space wanderers, then the Moon shows them to us in all their glory. Her "face" is so disfigured with scars that it becomes clear that asteroids have targeted her many times.
Several years ago, scientists came to the conclusion that once upon a time, the Moon was turned back to Earth. According to New Scientist, this was established by researchers from the Paris Institute of Earth Physics. The moon is constantly facing the Earth with one side, because the period of its rotation around its own axis coincides with the period of revolution around the Earth. According to computer models, the number of craters in the eastern hemisphere of the moon should be 30% more than in the western one. Scientists compare the moon to a car: when it rains, the number of drops falling on the windshield is greater than the number falling on the rear.
However, it turned out that this effect is present if we restrict ourselves only to considering young craters in the Eastern Hemisphere. Ancient craters, on the other hand, are more common in the western part of the moon. How can this be explained? Scientists have come to the conclusion that such a distribution of craters may be caused by the collision of the Moon with a very large asteroid in the distant past. In their opinion, at first the Moon was turned to the Earth with one side, a huge asteroid crashed into it and forced it to rotate around its own axis.
The gravity of our planet gradually slowed down the movement of the moon, ultimately it "stopped", turning to the Earth with a different side. Scientists believe the collision occurred 3.9 billion years ago. Imagine how impressive the asteroid was if it made the moon spin like a top! It's good that he has not yet split our space neighbor, by the way, scientists have recently seriously started talking about the possibility of such a scenario in the future.
If an asteroid splits the moon
Until now, it was believed that the main danger from space is an impressive asteroid that could crash into our planet. However, it turned out that the asteroid is capable of endangering the existence of our civilization, simply hitting the moon and splitting it into pieces.
In the main asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, millions of cosmic bodies rotate. Among the many asteroids ranging in size from tens of meters to the first hundreds of kilometers, two huge cosmic bodies stand out sharply - Vesta and Ceres. It is they, according to scientists, who can become the main participants in a possible cosmic drama that will lead to the disappearance of the moon.
Vesta is one of the largest asteroids, it ranks first in mass and second in size after Ceres. It is also the brightest asteroid of all and the only one that can be effortlessly observed with the naked eye. The dimensions of Vesta are 578x560x458 km. It was opened on March 29, 1807 by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers. Thanks to the proposal of Karl Gauss, this cosmic body received the name of the ancient Roman goddess of the house and hearth of Vesta.
Ceres, which was discovered on January 1, 1801 by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, is a dwarf planet and is the largest and most massive body in the asteroid belt. For some time Ceres was even considered as a full-fledged planet of the solar system, then it was classified as an asteroid, and in 2006 it was attributed to dwarf planets. The diameter of this cosmic body is about 950 km. The dwarf planet, which has a spherical shape, is named after the ancient Roman goddess of fertility Ceres.
According to scientists, it is Vesta and Ceres that pose a great danger. If the Earth suddenly collides with Ceres, our planet will simply fall apart. That is why astronomers have been closely monitoring the asteroid belt for a long time and calculate the trajectories of potentially dangerous space bodies. Relatively recently, such calculations led to a sensational discovery. They showed that there is a rapid convergence of Vesta and Ceres, as a result of which these cosmic bodies will certainly collide.
As a result of this collision, Vesta will fall to pieces, and the huge Ceres, due to a strong blow, will change its trajectory and head towards Earth. Fortunately, according to the calculations of scientists, Ceres will pass by our planet, but … will crash into the Moon. From the impact, the satellite of our planet will scatter into small fragments!
Is life possible without a night star?
While scientists are still at a loss to answer when such a scenario can be realized. Maybe our children will be left without the Moon, or maybe our great-great-grandchildren. I would like to believe that this is another space horror story like three giant UFOs that were supposed to fly up to Earth by December 21, 2012. But, alas, everything is too serious. Scientists are calculating the scenario of such a cosmic catastrophe, because it is quite capable of leading to the death of our civilization.
What has already been established? Computer simulations have shown that the Moon will definitely not withstand the powerful blow of Ceres. Some of the fragments from it will fly to the Earth, however, according to astrophysicists, they will not lead to human casualties, since they will burn up in the atmosphere without even reaching the planet's surface. Unfortunately, there will be no other saving circumstances for us in this catastrophe.
The moon has too much influence on our planet for its disappearance to pass without serious consequences. Immediately after the disappearance of the Moon, the waters of the World Ocean, concentrated at the equator due to the attraction of the satellite, will rush to the poles. Huge areas of land will be flooded by tsunami waves, many coastal cities and even states will disappear, and millions of people will die.
But this will be only the beginning of the catastrophe, after the disappearance of the Moon, the situation on Earth will worsen every hour. The moon is the key to the stability of our planet, thanks to its gravity, the Earth's axis of rotation is kept at a constant tilt angle of 23 degrees. There is a more or less predictable climate, there is a cyclical change of seasons. Without the Moon, this stability will end. As the calculations of scientists show, the Earth will begin to rotate chaotically, while the rotation angle will fluctuate from zero to 90 degrees.
The climate will literally go crazy, in many parts of the planet it will simply become impossible to live. The level of the World Ocean will rise, a significant part of the land will go under water. There will be very few fertile lands, the harvests from them will not be able to feed humanity. People will begin to die of hunger en masse. Local battles for land, food and water will take place everywhere. Only three months will pass, and the population of the planet will decrease several times. People will begin to degrade quickly, for some time they will still use the legacy of their civilization (weapons, cars, dishes, canned food, etc.), but in the absence of production it will not last long. The Stone Age will come again …
By and large, the consequences of the disappearance of the Moon for nature are even difficult to calculate, because many plants, animals and insects on Earth have adapted to its phases, ebb and flow.
Strange escape scenario
So far, only one rescue scenario has been voiced, which surprised me a lot, because it provides for the "theft" of one of Jupiter's moons to replace the lost Moon. Scientists have even looked at an equivalent replacement - Europe, which is quite comparable in size to the Moon and will be able to keep the Earth in its present position.
However, pundits admit that "stealing" Europa will not be easy given Jupiter's gravity. Ladies and gentlemen, wouldn't it be easier to prevent Vesta from colliding with Ceres or to send the latter past the Moon? After all, when the Moon disappears, your opportunities to do something will also disappear …
“No, apparently, we will have to rely only on aliens who are based on the Moon
Andrey SIDORENKO