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.
MadMax, the Grinning Reaper: Your choice is PROBABLY a good one. PROBABLY. Yet.......
Each variable, mass and velocity, depend on the other. You could an asteroid of any mass and give it enough speed, or choose any speed as long as there’s enough mass. But whatever it is, it wouldn’t split the moon but shatter it into a gazillion pieces instead. It would take a very specific and controlled force to just cut it down the middle and push halves away.
Some guy who knows how to edit photos?
You would have to apply a tourniquet or else it would bleed out of it’s whatever.
Measure twice, cut once. Because you’d never live it down if you missed that cut.
But the Moon does rotate. However, its period of rotation around its axis is almost exactly (see "Libration") equal to its period of revolution around the Earth.
Regards,
Ewwww. No way high way :-)
Talk about all eyes on you! Gee whiz, that would be nerve wracking!
These two half-moons would be so unstable in orbit around the earth that they would very likely crash into our planet and obliterate all life except for the Clintons and Obamas possibly since they would be deep, deep underground where they live anyway.
Me too. I wonder if there is any such organization? :-)
Arrrggh! No wonder all my projects look like sh**!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seveneves
At some unspecified date in the near future, an unknown agent causes the Moon to shatter into seven pieces. As the remnants of the Moon begin to collide with one another, astronomer and science popularizer "Doc" Dubois Harris calculates that the number of collisions will increase exponentially. A large number of moon fragments will begin entering Earth's atmosphere, forming a "white sky" and blanketing the earth within two years with what he calls a "Hard Rain" of bolides; this will cause the atmosphere to heat to incandescence and oceans to boil away, destroying the biosphere and rendering Earth uninhabitable for thousands of years. It is decided to evacuate as many people and resources as possible to a "Cloud Ark" in orbit, including a "swarm" of "arklet" habitats that will be able to avoid the debris from the moon—both to attempt to preserve the human race and to give the remaining doomed inhabitants of Earth something to hope for, to prevent civil disorder from breaking out on Earth before its surface is destroyed. Each nation on Earth is invited to choose by lot a small number of young people to become eligible to join the Cloud Ark.
(excerpt, this is only the early part of the novel)
yeah... uh.
And that's when civilization revealed it's nasty side.
Just be sure you go at night. Otherwise, you might burn up.
Yes, with a whole lot of advanced technogical help
Great book
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