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What if the Moon was split in half?
Just thinking about the moon and what would happen if it was split in half ^ | May 1, 2018

Posted on 05/01/2018 7:32:11 PM PDT by SamAdams76

If you simply flew up into space and sawed the moon in half with a giant hacksaw, most likely, nothing would happen. This is because gravitational force would hold the two halves together, sort of like a couple of magnets.

But what if you were able to get a couple of giant crowbars and put a person on the other side and then count to 3 and totally separate the two halves of the moon?

With enough strength applied, you could theoretically push the two halves far enough apart where the gravitational force no longer pulls them together and now the two halves start drifting apart.

This is where the fun begins.

It would be a pretty awesome sight from planet Earth, that I can tell you. Now if you left them in the same orbit (around the Earth), they'd eventually meet up with each other so you would have to find a way to push them into different orbits - maybe if you put a bunch of thruster rockets on one of the halves...I'm just thinking out loud here. I'm sure others will have better ideas.

So in essence, if we are going to successfully split the moon apart, we will need to apply enough delta V to one half of it to put it into a drastically different orbit. No mean task!

Here on Earth, in addition to the spectacular sight, we'd get reductions in tides with and increase in variability if spring and neap tides.

Long term, one of the moon halves will go into a more elliptical orbit, diving down close to the atmosphere of the Earth and perhaps even skim off much of the atmosphere, resulting in widespread extinction of species and other unfavorable effects.

In conclusion, splitting the moon in half, while certainly a tempting endeavor, should probably not be seriously attempted as the end result could well be catastrophic with respect to planet Earth.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; catastrophism; kuhrayzee; lunarorigin; moon; science; themoon; wob
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Rubber cement = BANNED by the fed.gov, which knows & does what is best for us, of course.


21 posted on 05/01/2018 7:47:54 PM PDT by 2harddrive
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To: TigersEye
I know. I'm such a troublemaker.

I haven't even told you all what I did up in the North Pole on my last vacation there.

Hint: Santa might not be making the rounds this year. Sorry kids. It wasn't intentional.

22 posted on 05/01/2018 7:48:53 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: SamAdams76

So where do you buy a saw that big? Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace or Amazon?


23 posted on 05/01/2018 7:50:10 PM PDT by Dutch Boy
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To: Ransomed

Long live Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel!


24 posted on 05/01/2018 7:50:29 PM PDT by Farmerbob
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To: Mark17

No I am funnin’


25 posted on 05/01/2018 7:51:32 PM PDT by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: Ransomed

Ok, I remember. As soon as I started reading this, I thought of a tv show or movie that had a split moon


26 posted on 05/01/2018 7:51:37 PM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: SamAdams76

What’s done is done.

I say leave the two halves in the same orbit but separate them so they are exactly opposite.

I can’t even imagine the consequences of that so don’t blame me if someone gets hurt.
But I like symmetry.


27 posted on 05/01/2018 7:51:43 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: 2harddrive
What about rubber chickens?

If they banned those I will have to riot. There is really no other reasonable option.

28 posted on 05/01/2018 7:52:08 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Bunnies, bunnies, it must be bunnies!! Or maybe midgets....)
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To: 2harddrive

I have seen that. It is pretty cool.


29 posted on 05/01/2018 7:52:14 PM PDT by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: SamAdams76

Stay off the ganja, dude.


30 posted on 05/01/2018 7:52:47 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj ("It's Slappin' Time !")
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To: Dutch Boy
Amazon Prime.

So free 2-day shipping. For convenience, I had it delivered directly to the moon. Would have had a hard time fitting it into my Tesla spaceship.

31 posted on 05/01/2018 7:54:37 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: SamAdams76

The article is as relevant as asking “what if flibbety flork?”


32 posted on 05/01/2018 7:56:54 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
There's a Moon In The Sky (And It's Called The Moon)
33 posted on 05/01/2018 7:57:07 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: Paleo Conservative
If you cut the moon in half, you could never get them apart. Big rockets or not. I did see a movie once where they pushed the earth by building huge boosters on Antartica.

If you want two moons, your only choice is to blow the moon up into bits and pieces. Then work on getting those pieces to coalesce into two moons.

A more worthwhile effort would be to build a huge observatory and base smack in the middle of the far side. You'd get about 6 weeks of unobscured viewing. You'd relay data back to earth via satellite in lunar polar orbit.

I think the Chinese will do this (the observatory and base).

34 posted on 05/01/2018 7:58:31 PM PDT by IndispensableDestiny
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To: SamAdams76
The very act of pushing them apart would give them different orbits, since you'd be giving them different orbital velocities. How much of a different orbit depends on how far above their combined escape velocities you pushed each half (which would be the same escape velocity of the original moon, 2.38 km/s). But unless there's some corrective circularization force applied, they would have very eccentric orbits.

The total minimum energy needed, by the way, is ½m·v², which calculates to about 1.9x1029 joules, roughly equivalent to a 46 trillion megaton nuclear explosion.
35 posted on 05/01/2018 7:58:46 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Slyfox

If it’s night time, we could land on the sun.


36 posted on 05/01/2018 8:01:02 PM PDT by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.)
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To: SamAdams76
One of two things would happen:

1) The elephant holding up the moon would stampede and the turtles would crawl back into their shells, or

2) The Grays hiding inside the hollow moon would launch their final attack against Earth.

37 posted on 05/01/2018 8:02:57 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: SamAdams76

Actually, there are places in an orbit where two massive objects can remain in stable orbit, neither crashing towards each other, or sending one or the other out of control.

They are called LaGrange points. They exist at 60 and 180 degrees. I would suspect that if the moon were split into two, and the two halves placed 60 degrees apart, the effect on the tides, etc. would be minimal enough to not have cataclysmic effects.


38 posted on 05/01/2018 8:06:08 PM PDT by dangus
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To: Farmerbob

Thundarr the barbarian was micro-aggressing by being a white barbarian male who bossed around a minority monster beast-man and a woman sorcerer of color. He could only do this because he had access to superior technology, the sun sword.

—cnn dog squeeze pundit

Freegards, the humans must go free, wizard!!!


39 posted on 05/01/2018 8:06:18 PM PDT by Ransomed
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To: SamAdams76

Looks flat to me— no matter what a few astronauts said or did.


40 posted on 05/01/2018 8:07:17 PM PDT by Exit148 (OH LORD, Your children need you. (Loose Chnge Club founder) Put yours aside for the next Freepathon!)
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