What would happen if the moons revolution speed was half as fast as it is now?

Answer 1

Everything is structured in the solar system. Even if the Sun moved a little bit we would all burn, or freeze to death. So, thus having to do with that, having the moon move twice as far, the moon controls magnetic fields with the earth and us, thus having to believe in emotional problems and sometimes mental problems. So, the effect would be significantly HUGE.

Answer 2

90 degrees? Yikes! The tides would be the least of our worries. This would be a totally unstable system, and anything that survives the strange tides would probably be destroyed after the catastrophic collision of the two moons. Gigantic chunks of moon debris would come hurtling down toward earth. This 90 degree arrangement could never be part of a naturally forming stable earth-moon system.

If the moons formed an angle of about 180 degrees, the tides would not cancel. In fact, the tides might not be too extremely different from the way they are now. It is true that there would be little or no effect from the earth and moons orbiting around their common barycenter, or center of gravity, but at the point where one moon has the stronger pull on the oceans, the other moon has the weaker pull. The moon overhead will have a stronger pull than the other moon, because the moon overhead is closer to that point. So the only question would be if the tides would be appreciably stronger or weaker from the tides as we know them.

If we assume the 90 degree model and disregard the impossibility of it, then it is hard to predict with little expertise or skill at developing mathematical models. But I would think that the moons would act together to form possibly monumental tides roughly at the 45 degree region (more or less where their combined gravities would have maximum effect), along with likely catastrophic tides on the far side of earth. the combined gravities of the moons might be sufficient to bring the barycenter forward and right outside of the body of the earth, and I think this would tend to amplify the tides at the far side of earth.

Answer 3

The whole daily pattern of two high tides and two low tides would run slow by an average

of about 25 minutes a day, instead of 50 minutes a day as it does now. Also, the unusually

high highs and low lows at New Moon and Full Moon would occur only once in 30 days, instead

of once in 15 days as they do now.

Answer 4

High tides would be smaller and low tides would be bigger, but would still occur.

The cause of the tides is the gravitational attraction between the earth and moon, and to a lesser extent, between the earth and sun. If the moon were further from the earth, its gravitational attraction would be less strong, and its effect on the earth's liquid envelope would be correspondingly less.

Answer 5

First I don think that would happen

And second, well they cant crash , because they have different orbits.

So they would just revolve around us.

It would also make the tides go crazy.

And the axis might shift.

The gravitational pull on Earth might change.

It would really throw us off balance.

Answer 6

Well, first of all, the moon revolves around the Earth every 27.3 days, not 30, and we see

a complete cycle of "phases" every 29.53 days.

-- Right now, the tides go high -- low -- high -- low every 24hours 49minutes on the

average, so each extreme follows the preceding extreme by about 6hours 12minutes.

-- If the moon revolved in the same direction but in half the time, then each extreme

would follow the preceding extreme by about 6 hours 24 minutes, with the complete

"daily" cycle averaging 25 hours 36 minutes.

Of course the high tides would be higher and the lows would be lower, because

in order to revolve around the Earth more often, the moon would need to be in

a smaller orbit.

Answer 7

That would depend on the mass and distance of the moons. In general, if the moon is massive enough to cause much of a tidal effect, then there are no stable orbits for two moons; one or both of them will be ejected, or collide with the parent body.

The planet Mars has two tiny moons; neither is massive enough to cause tides, or to affect the other moon.

Jupiter has dozens of moons, including four fairly large ones. But Jupiter itself is enormous, and the 4 large moons aren't really massive enough to cause tides in Jupiter's gravity.

Answer 8

Nothing of any significance "would happen". The moon would take about two months to go around the Earth instead of one. Big whoop.

Actually, the moon taking about a month to go around the Earth is not a coincidence, it's why we have a word for that particular time division. So we'd still probably call the time it takes the Moon to go through a complete cycle of phases a "month", but there would be six months in a year of about 60 days each instead of 12 of about 30 days each.

Also, there would be no total solar eclipses; the only way to lengthen the moon's orbital period is to increase the semi-major axis of its orbit, so it would be further away and therefore significantly smaller than the Sun in angular size. Again, not something that affects day-to-day life much.

Also, tides would be a bit less extreme, but given that you probably don't know how big they are now, you likely wouldn't care.

Answer 9

The period would be slightly longer. Also, other things being equal, to revolve once around the Earth every 15 days, the Moon would have to be closer to Earth; this would cause much stronger tides.

Answer 10

There would be two superimposed periods of tides, one for each moon. As a result - and assuming both moons would be large and close enough to produce significant tides - the tidal periods would be much more irregular.