Today we are answering an age-old very 

scientific and important question:

What if the moon crashes into earth? It’s more interesting and weird than you
probably think. Let's start with the basics: Why isn't the Moon on its way to
crash into us already? We know that earth’s gravity pulls everything towards it,
including the Moon, but somehow, it stays up, as if suspended by some
opposite force. But there is no other force countering gravity - instead, the trick
to staying up is a ‘sideways’ motion that we call an orbit. You see orbits every
day: when you throw a ball it makes a tiny little orbit. The only difference
between that ball’s orbit and the moon’s is that the ball eventually hits the
ground. Basically, the reason is speed. If you could throw your ball fast enough,
it would bend around the world and come back to you. If there was no air
slowing it down, it could orbit forever. And this is what the moon does: Falling
sideways around earth, very fast, with no air slowing it down. Orbiting earth
every 27 days, at 3600 km/h. So for the moon to just stop in its orbit and
plummet to the earth would break more laws of physics than we have time to
explain. So how do we crash it into earth?– In a nutshell, to change an object’s
orbit, you need to change its speed, which changes where gravity takes it. – But
even small changes require enormous forces, which is why all the large objects
in the solar system are so stable nowadays. According to science, the moon is
big and very massive. Even igniting billions of rocket engines all over its
surface would barely move the Moon..It looks like nothing short of magic will
make the moon fall. So we’ll use a magic spell that slows down the moon so
much that it changes its orbit and spirals towards earth. To get the most from the
experience, the moon will take exactly one year before it hits earth. Ready? 3. 2.
1. *Magic. For the first few days, nothing really changes. The moon gets a tiny
bit brighter and scientists get confused, but the rest of us don’t notice anything
different. – The only noticeable real effect of the moon on the earth are the
tides. Tides exist because while earth pulls on the moon, the moon’s gravity
pulls back on the earth. Since the strength of gravity gets weaker with distance,
different parts of the earth feel a slightly different pull. Which causes the earth,
especially the oceans, to bulge when the moon is above them, and contract a
little on the sides when it’s not. – As earth rotates every day underneath the
moon, the moon’s influence fluctuates, causing the water-level of the oceans to
rise and fall by about half a meter twice a day. But with the moon drawing
ever closer, high tide gets higher every day. At first barely noticeable, within a
month the moon has covered half the distance to the earth and ocean tides have
grown to 4 meters. – Everyday high tide comes and waves flood coastal cities.
And there is no end in sight. And there is no end in sight. With the
moon drawing ever closer, tides rise ever higher, inundating another city and
more inhabited land with salty water every day.– By the end of month 2 the
moon has covered two-thirds of the distance to earth, and global infrastructure
is crumbling as tides rise above ten meters – displacing up to a billion people
who happen to live near the coastlines. As ports become inoperable shipping
grinds to a halt. Not only will it slow down the delivery of Kurzgesagt products
but also less exciting things like food. Global communications fall into disarray
– 95% of the internet is carried by ocean-crossing cables, and while these
largely don’t mind the water, their terminals on land do. Living inland doesn’t
guarantee safety either, tidal bores cause rivers to flow backwards, carrying
saltwater to contaminate surface and groundwater supplies. Gas shortages
follow, as oil refineries near the coast are abandoned. Countries are left with the
supplies they had on their shelves and strict rationing will begin. In the cities,
chaos reigns during the scavenging hours of low tide, while survivors take
refuge in highrises when the water returns.– Three months in and the moon is
close enough to disrupt communication and navigation satellites. While it is
normally far too distant for its gravity to cause any major problems for our
satellites, the closer it gets the more warped their orbits become. As their fuel
for orbital corrections runs out, satellites careen out of control. On earth, the
tides are rapidly growing to about 30 meters and will be reaching 100 m in
height in a few short weeks. At low tide, the ocean recedes hundreds of
kilometers, exposing the continental shelf like vast deserts, while at high tide
walls of water drown agriculture, houses and skyscrapers. And now, almost five
months in, the apocalypse has finished its warm-up act. Since the oceans are on
average only 3 kilometers deep, the tides have reached their maximum. Up
until now, the water in the oceans could flow, absorbing most of the moon's
gravitational squeezing, but now the earth itself is really feeling the squeeze of
the ever approaching moon. These aren’t so much tides of ‘water’, but tides of
‘rock.’ The squeezing of the planet, combined with the weight of quintillions of
tons of water sloshing on and off the tectonic plates, creates enormous stresses
below and begins to cause earthquakes of increasing magnitude and intensity.
It’s impossible to say how serious these earthquakes might be or where they
occur, but like a child jumping on their bed until it breaks, no good can come of
it. Strong tidal forces lead to volcanism on other planets and moons. On earth,
squeezing the planet disrupts the magma reservoirs inside the crust, triggering
sizable, climate-altering eruptions in Chile, New Zealand, Yellowstone, and
elsewhere. Meanwhile, watching patiently above is the moon. Still no bigger in
the sky than a small cloud. – Within 75,000 km of earth, it is bright enough to
illuminate the night sky like twilight.
After half a year, the moon is entering the space once occupied by
geosynchronous satellites where it orbits earth every 24 hours. It appears to
float at one spot in the sky, unmoving, cycling through a full set of phases every
day, but only visible to half the planet. With the moon ‘stationary’ above the
earth, the tides seem to freeze in place – half the world flooded, half with its
water seemingly returned to the sea, as if Earth is holding its breath to prepare
for the worst. – As the moon sinks further, you might wonder if its gravity
would overpower Earth’s, pulling you up and ending your misery? Fortunately
not. The earth’s surface gravity is about 6 times stronger than the moon’s, so
even if the moon were hovering right on top of you, you would still stay on the
ground. On the moon things are different though: the near side of the moon is
more strongly affected by earth’s gravity, so during the next few months, it
starts to stretch forward towards the earth, into something of an egg, triggering
deep moonquakes as the lunar rock flexes and changes shape. Though barely
noticeable now, this ‘squish’ will grow to hundreds of kilometers in a matter of
months. At this point the apocalypse has arrived and we can summarize the
months before the crash as “everybody left has a really bad time”. The tides
sweeping over the Earth slow down and then reverse their direction because the
moon now orbits earth faster than it rotates. The planet will experience an
abundance of earthquakes and volcanism. Massive amounts of volcanic aerosols
rise high into the stratosphere, shiny enough to reflect sunlight back into space.
What little light gets through is rust-red and is periodically diminished by daily
eclipses. The result is a rapid global cooling, with acid rains and summer snows
killing even the hardiest plants.The clock runs out on civilization. Billions have
perished while an egg-shaped moon is still drawing closer. Let’s get ready for
the grand finale.. Finally, at the end of the year,, the moon has reached the
Roche limit. That’s the point where Earth’s gravitational pull on the Moon is
stronger than the Moon’s own gravity. Things on the lunar surface start falling
towards Earth and by the time it crosses 10,000 km the entire moon
disintegrates into rubble, smearing itself into a massive ring system around the
earth. Fortunately, the moon’s disintegration means the misery on Earth has
ended. No moon means the general apocalyptic nature of things comes to a halt.
The oceans recede, flowing off the land one last time.– Any survivors are
treated to a view of tremendous arches spanning the sky, glimmering in the
sunlight, illuminating the night sky more brilliantly than any full moon ever
could, while meteor showers of moondust fill the sky. It’s hard to say what
happens next, but the tranquility may be short-lived. If too much moondust rains
down, friction heats the atmosphere – possibly boiling the oceans. If not, the
enormous shadows cast by the rings, combined with all the volcanic and
meteoric aerosols, block even more sunlight, and a period of runaway cooling
could begin that freezes much of earth’s surface solid. In any case, at some
point people will emerge again – from submarines or bunkers or mountaintops.
They will not have a great time before rebuilding civilization and their success
is not guaranteed – but at least they will try to do so with beautiful rings in the
sky.