Planetary gravitational ramifications of planet killing Death Star

rodzimguitar68

Fractal Fanatic
I would like to hear from any specialists in the field of our solar system if an invading enemy vaporized Mars, Venus or our moon in a display of power.

How long would life go on before the new gravitational imbalance could catch up to us?

Thanks
 
Losing the moon would be the worst. Without it the earth's tilt would change and life would be difficult.
 
Losing the moon would be the worst. Without it the earth's tilt would change and life would be difficult.
Tides would stop, too.
Losing the moon (I mean it being simply deleted) means losing tides. Losing tides kills the ocean because a massive loss of mechanical energy stirring the pot is suddenly gone. This lack of churning kills the primary source of CO2 turnover/exchange (suprise, it’s not plant life, it’s blue-green algae that’s keeping everything else alive on this planet). Long story short, we all cook as we suffocate.

As for the moon or some other planet actually exploding, we would soon be inundated by massive rocks. It would be another KT event, but hundreds if not thousands of times over. We’d be incinerated faster than anyone could even tweet about it.
 
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Losing the moon (I mean it being simply deleted) means losing tides. Losing tides kills the ocean because a massive loss of mechanical energy stirring the pot is suddenly gone. This lack of churning kills the primary source of CO2 turnover/exchange (suprise, it’s not plant life, it’s blue-green algae that’s keeping everything else alive on this planet). Long story short, we all cook as we suffocate.

As for the moon or some other planet actually exploding, we would soon be inundated by massive rocks. It would be another KT event, but hundreds if not thousands of times over. We’d be incinerated faster than anyone could even tweet about it.
He said vaporized so...
 
Losing the moon would be the worst. Without it the earth's tilt would change and life would be difficult.

There's an excellent book on this. Seveneves by Stephenson (one of my favorite writers. True wonks will love his attention to scientific detail...and if you like codes/crypto/math, try Cryptonomicon.)

Were the moon just GONE, then we'd see those issues, but should a Death Star blow it up, that dust would settle on earth eventually...by by humans as we know them.
 
Re: Losing the moon
Without the moon, additionally, the rotation speed of the earth would be 3-4 times as high causing more problems...
 
I would like to hear from any specialists in the field of our solar system if an invading enemy vaporized Mars, Venus or our moon in a display of power.

How long would life go on before the new gravitational imbalance could catch up to us?

Thanks

Depends on if the invading enemies are green or grey :)


Seriously, if the invaders are heavenly bodies then whatever object - moon, star or planet that was in their path would just absorb them. Has happened over and over in the past. As to the effects of all that, well here we are :)
 
There's an excellent book on this. Seveneves by Stephenson (one of my favorite writers. True wonks will love his attention to scientific detail...and if you like codes/crypto/math, try Cryptonomicon.)

I love Stephenson, but I wish I'd stopped reading (or he'd stopped writing) about halfway through. I felt like the story had a logical (and pretty good!) ending, and then everything went off the rails after the flash-forward.
 
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Pretty sure blowing up the moon as a display of power would be like shooting someone in the face as a warning shot. It's not just a mirror, it's part of a gravitational system that effects all of earth. We'd all die
 
Hummmm good question, but maybe more appropriate for this forum would be...What guitar will you grab as you leave the planet? I'm thinking a Stratocaster would be best because of its ability to cast the stratosphere. I think that would be super useful under the circumstances. :cool:
 
Hummmm good question, but maybe more appropriate for this forum would be...What guitar will you grab as you leave the planet? I'm thinking a Stratocaster would be best because of its ability to cast the stratosphere. I think that would be super useful under the circumstances. :cool:
Ibanez JPMP2 Petrucci model and rack gear. Guitar has a world domination mode switch and the rack can change the temperature of the sun. Probably enough to scare off those Empire noobs.
 
On the plus side, if the moon exploded, all of mankinds' woes would be gravitationally solved..
On the negative, I got nothin'!
 
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