Could humans survive if the Earth stopped spinning?
If Earth stopped rotating and fell to a standstill, humanity would be in trouble. If the planet stopped suddenly, everything on the surface would be destroyed, as the atmosphere, oceans and anything not nailed down kept spinning.
The probability for such an event is practically zero in the next few billion years. If the Earth stopped spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be in motion with the Earth's original 1100 mile per hour rotation speed at the equator.
Notable astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, some time back, had revealed how all living beings on our planet would die if the Earth were to stop rotating even for one second. The scientist had said that the incident could have similar implications as one not wearing a safety belt during a severe car accident.
If the planet were to come to an abrupt halt, the angular momentum imparted to the air, water and even rocks along the equator would keep moving at this speed of 1,100 mph. The movement would scour the surface while ripping it apart and sending shards into the upper regions of the atmosphere and outer space.
Long answer: The Moon is in a stable orbit around Earth. There is no chance that it could just change its orbit and crash into Earth without something else really massive coming along and changing the situation. The Moon is actually moving away from Earth at the rate of a few centimetres per year.
According to scientists, 4.54 billion years ago, an immense cloud of dust and hydrogen gas began to collapse, which caused the dust cloud to flatten and spin. As it became flatter, the disk rotated faster and faster.
It is the pull of the Moon's gravity on the Earth that holds our planet in place. Without the Moon stabilising our tilt, it is possible that the Earth's tilt could vary wildly. It would move from no tilt (which means no seasons) to a large tilt (which means extreme weather and even ice ages).
In reality, the world won't run out of water. Water does not leave Earth, nor does it come from space. The amount of water the world has is the same amount of water we've always had. However, we could run out of usable water, or at least see a drop to very low reserves.
Earth moves very fast. It spins (rotates) at a speed of about 1,000 miles (1600 kilometers) per hour and orbits around the Sun at a speed of about 67,000 miles (107,000 kilometers) per hour. We do not feel any of this motion because these speeds are constant.
The most immediate consequence of destroying the Moon would be a much darker night sky. The Moon is the largest and most-reflective object in our sky, outside of the Sun of course. Losing it would make the rest of the sky comparatively brighter, which might be a nice side effect for ground-based deep-sky astronomers.
Can Earth survive without the moon?
Without a moon the tilt of our earth's axis would vary over time. This could create some very wild weather. Right now, thanks to our moon, our axis stays tilted at twenty-three point five degrees. But without the moon the earth might tilt too far over or hardly tilt at all leading to no seasons or even extreme seasons.
Scientists estimate it would take about 91 billion years for the core to completely solidify—but the sun will burn out in a fraction of that time (about 5 billion years).
Earth isn't likely to ever get tidally locked to the Sun — we're too far away for that to happen. And, though our planet's rotation is slowing down ever so slightly (a day gets about 1.7 milliseconds longer every century), our planet should never stop spinning completely. That's something to be thankful for.
If the explosion doesn't alter the Earth's rotation, the lack of moon would cause the Earth to rotate at a constant speed. This means that every day would be 24 hours long for the rest of the Earth's existence. The Earth's tides would also change because the gravity the moon exerts on the oceans would no longer exist.
The moon has almost no atmosphere, so there's no air for us to breathe. There is no water on the moon either, and we need to drink water to survive. Days and nights on the moon last over two weeks long!
However, it seems important to have precise measurements confirming that astronauts can spend 6 months on the Moon without exceeding the legally required limits of NASA in case they live in protected bases.
An enduring myth about the Moon is that it doesn't rotate. While it's true that the Moon keeps the same face to us, this only happens because the Moon rotates at the same rate as its orbital motion, a special case of tidal locking called synchronous rotation.
We don't notice the Earth spinning when we look at the things around us, because they all move with us in exactly the same way, held firm by gravity. Even the air moves with us as the Earth spins.
In other words, it's extremely unlikely that life on any planet can survive the death of its sun — but new life could spring from the ashes of the old once that sun shrivels up and turns off its violent winds.
Within a few days, however, the temperatures would begin to drop, and any humans left on the planet's surface would die soon after. Within two months, the ocean's surface would freeze over, but it would take another thousand years for our seas to freeze solid.
Can we survive without the Sun?
Warmth: not too much and not too little
And we get the amount of warmth needed for humans, animals and plants to live. If the sun would go out, no life could survive on most of earth's surface within a few weeks. Water and air would freeze over into sheets of ice.
Oxygen makes up one-fifth of the air we breathe, but it's the most vital component – and it does seem to be declining. The main cause is the burning of fossil fuels, which consumes free oxygen. Fortunately, the atmosphere contains so much oxygen that we're in no danger of running out soon.
Humans cannot drink saline water, but, saline water can be made into freshwater, for which there are many uses. The process is called "desalination", and it is being used more and more around the world to provide people with needed freshwater.
As the climate dries the American west faces power and water shortages, experts warn. Two of the largest reservoirs in America, which provide water and electricity to millions, are in danger of reaching 'dead pool status. ' A result of the climate crisis and overconsumption of water, experts say.
So, Earth travels about 1.6 million miles (2.6 million km) a day, or 66,627 mph (107,226 km/h).
Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years. Scientists have scoured the Earth searching for the oldest rocks to radiometrically date.
And how fast is the Milky Way Galaxy moving? The speed turns out to be an astounding 1.3 million miles per hour (2.1 million km/hr)! We are moving roughly in the direction on the sky that is defined by the constellations of Leo and Virgo.
If the rotation would stop, we would feel an additional gravity of 0.034 m/s2, or about 0.35%, at the equator, (incorrectly) assuming the shape of Earth isn't changed by the changing rotation. The centrifugal acceleration is v2/r, with v=465.1 m/s, and r=6378100 m.
If the earth were not spinning, you would be heavier as you would feel the full force of gravity. Since there is more centrifugal force at the equator to cancel gravity, your overall weight at the equator versus at the poles is even less.
If the rotation stopped, the Earth would transform quickly into a perfect sphere. All the water gathering near the equator would flow away toward the poles, generating a massive tsunami. Five seconds later, when the planet returned to its full-speed rotation, that water would backtrack.
Is the Earth spinning faster than it was 20 years ago?
Apparently, Earth has actually been speeding up for a few years now. In 2020, it set new records no less than 28 times, according to Time and Date, despite the last record being set all the way back in 2005. This trend looks set to continue in 2022, but scientists are yet to agree on why Earth's spin is speeding up.
We do not feel any of this motion because these speeds are constant. The spinning and orbital speeds of Earth stay the same so we do not feel any acceleration or deceleration. You can only feel motion if your speed changes.
It wouldn't be good. At the Equator, the earth's rotational motion is at its fastest, about a thousand miles an hour. If that motion suddenly stopped, the momentum would send things flying eastward. Moving rocks and oceans would trigger earthquakes and tsunamis.
Mount Nevado Huascarán in Peru has the lowest gravitational acceleration, at 9.7639 m/s2, while the highest is at the surface of the Arctic Ocean, at 9.8337 m/s2.
The faster the Earth spins, the shorter our days would become. With a 1 mph speed increase, the day would only get about a minute and a half shorter and our internal body clocks, which stick to a pretty strict 24-hour schedule, probably wouldn't notice.
The most immediate consequence of destroying the Moon would be a much darker night sky. The Moon is the largest and most-reflective object in our sky, outside of the Sun of course. Losing it would make the rest of the sky comparatively brighter, which might be a nice side effect for ground-based deep-sky astronomers.
Without the Moon stabilising our tilt, it is possible that the Earth's tilt could vary wildly. It would move from no tilt (which means no seasons) to a large tilt (which means extreme weather and even ice ages).