what would happen to the earth if a planet killing asteriod hit the moon?
101481
the tidings of the sea would stop existing, and basically everything containing water (including the human body) would OR die, OR very urgently have to adapt! Mmmm, no, we'd die. Even female menstruation depends on the moon...
195527
Well, without the moon, we'd have almost no tides, which could present its own set of problems. Given that a lot of our weather can be ultimately relatable to tidal action, this could be potentiall disasterous, even if no fragments ever hit earth.\n\nAlmost everyone's answer concerns an extinction level event on earth, and that's not necessarily true. The earth is not a static point around which the moon rotates. Rather, due to the fact that the moon is an appreciable fractional size of the earth, the 2 combine in its revolution around the sun around a mutual center of gravity called a barycenter. Without the moon, the earth's revolution would be subject to some variation given the fact that now only the sun's gravity is affecting the earth.\n\nThe moon does rotate around the earth however; it's not just sitting there in space. Depending on the angle of impact of an incoming planetoid (at the size of the moon, asteroid would be rather small), not every impact would cause an extinction event on earth. For example, if an incoming planetoid impacted from an angle where the planetoid cuts between the orbital paths of the earth and the moon, the impact would cause the debris to enter an elliptical orbit, rather than a circular one, around the earth. It would remain to be seen if said orbit would be dangerous.\n\nIf the planetoid hit the moon from behind AND tangential to the moons orbit, very few of the fragments would actually impact the earth. The debris would continue in the original orbit, but accelerated based off the original velocity of the planetoid. This would decrease the period of revolution around the earth for the remaining debris.\n\nWhat everyone else is describing is where the planetoid would approach from outside the E/M system that would cause such huge devestation on earth. Or, if the planetoid hit the moon headon, causing a slowing of the moons orbital rate by the velocity of the incoming planetoid.\n\n"Freezing at night" is not a valid outcome; the moon shines light on us; it doesn't radiate heat. "Tidal waves" are really related to underwater earthquakes, not actual tidal action by the moon (think about it; every place on the coast experiences high and low tides 2x every 24hrs 34 minutes; if the moon created "tidal waves" every seacoast would be innundated horribly, and without the use of hurricanes!). Electric bills, as someone put, would remain the same (think about it; if it's dark outside, you turn on the lights, regardless of whether or not it's a full moon). Crime rates would probably go up a little in the outlying areas (where there is less artificial illumination to begin with), but not as horribly as someone described.\n\nJust remember: not all impacts would be bad. ;-)
386163
we'd all DIE!!!\ni dont know!\nyou should go ask an astronomer
388807
Tides will become weaker. Other MINOR affects will change our planet, slight changes in the time a season changes. However you should not worry. The moon is thousands of miles away. The moon only gets about 1 inch further every year. 10000 years from now it still will not make a difference. And if the sapce program does what it is claiming to do. This cycle could be slowed down slightly... maybe 7/8 of an inch instead if they really wanted to but that would ba a useless waste of time, money, resources, and brain power. Don't worry the moon wont affect anything for a few million or billion years.
754982
The moon is geologically inert. It is believed that the last lunar volcano erupted several million years ago (perhaps more than a billion years ago though there is some debate). There would be NO effect on the earth whatsoever as lunar volcanism was less energetic it is unlikely that anything spewed out would escape lunar gravity and reach Earth.\n\nOn the other hand, asteroid IMPACTS on the moon CAN be energetic enough to throw debris towards the Earth, and some meteorites found on the Earth are believed to be of lunar origin.
1087792
No. The earth would still rock on. Only its magnetic field would be annihilated. Like at Mars. Or Moon.
260393
There will be deadly consequences, below is a website with more details:\n\nhttp://www.exitmundi.nl/moon.htm
57004
The Earth would lose sea tides and other water tides.  This would mean the sea receding in some parts of the world and flooding in other parts.  I also think that the Earth will "wobble" on its axis and its path of revolution around the sun would change.  That would mean change in the duration of the day and the year, I guess that would mean toal destruction.
461276
It would probably sound something like this:\n\n"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"\n\nsince we'd all just fly off the surface of the Earth and shoot into space.
512600
I'd see a waning gibbous moon.\n\nOur sentiments play tricks on us to make us think the moon is rarer than it used to be.  But it's been revolving around the earth for a very long time.
857828
1- yup, Earth\n2 - The sun is about 400 times the diameter of the moon, but is also about 400 times farther away\n3 - Cosmic rays ( a form of electromagnetic energy that would sterilize the surface of our planet within a few months if not blocked ), and meteors, thousands of which would hit us every hour.
523001
It would change the Earth's rotation and the Earth would tilt on its axis. What if all of us asked the same question at the same time that violated one of  Yahoo's community guidelines? Would the system completely break down?
305402
"In about five billion years, the Sun will use up most of its hydrogen fuel. It will enter the final stages of its life. It will collapse, and then the outer layer of the Sun will expand. It will form a red giant.\n\nIt will be so big that some of the planets will be inside it. These planets will burn away. Which planets get destroyed will depend on how much mass the Sun loses."\nhttp://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior_Solar_System/Solar_System#What_will_happen_to_the_Solar_System.3F\n\n\nThere's more interesting reading and some illustrations here.\nhttp://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Lectures/vistas97.html
90509
The atmosphere of Jupiter would most likely destroy it before it could do damage. If it did hit the solid core of Jupiter and did enough damage to destroy it, we would have a second asteroid belt. Nothing major, though.
673492
No. If the Earth suddenly came to a stop and started orbiting the sun in the opposite direction it would probably kill us all. Inertia is not your friend.
588895
The obvious answer is the tides would be much smaller. We would still have tides, but they would be: (1) Caused by the Sun and therefore smaller. (2) They would come at roughly the same time each day.\n\nThis would affect a good deal of the marine life that depends on the tidal changes.\n\nLighting would also change. Reproductive behaviors in a number of animals are goverened by the moon's cycle. It is not known how much the moon's absence would change this.\n\nThe days would not grow longer as someone suggested. The opposite is true as the friction overcome in producing the tides takes energy. That energy is coming out of the earth's rotation and the moon's orbiting around the earth. The moon is slowly moving farther away and the earth is slowing down so the days are getting longer. Of course, this is an extremely slow process and you are not going to notice any change. The moon's absence would mean it wouldn't take place.\n\nEarthquakes would not be affected. They are caused by plate tectonics, which is independent of the moon.\n\nIf you are interested in the moon, try\nhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/\n\nHope this helps\n\nChuck
1183995
Fortunately, neither the US nor any other country possesses technology anywhere even close to sufficient to blow up something the size of the moon. If they did, they'd probably blow up Earth first.\n\nAlso, mining the moon for minerals would not be economically feasible, whether the moon is smashed to bits or not.