If our moon suddenly developed an atmosphere will that have any negative effects?
- Thread starter Lonkut
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warpus
In pork I trust
People might want to live there - leading to conflicts over who owns what part of the moon.
Is that what you're talking about?
Is that what you're talking about?
Perfection
The Great Head.
No, there would not.
GoodSarmatian
Jokerfied Western Male
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It won't effect earth at all, and the moon would not be able to sustain an earth-like atmosphere due to it's low gravity.
Perfection
The Great Head.
Not on its own for long time periods, but in the short term or with some human ingenuity it would probably be sustainable.
The moon's atmosphere might generate some pretty sights. I suppose that the moon would become less clear and any creatures that use its light to see by, or use it for navigation might suffer a bit.
But they seem to manage when it's cloudy or when it's new moon, so I doubt that the effect would be large.
I can't think of any other effect of the atmosphere itself.
But they seem to manage when it's cloudy or when it's new moon, so I doubt that the effect would be large.
I can't think of any other effect of the atmosphere itself.
Aramazd
Deity
Yep.
Ribs is a much better topic and you know itwell thats what my original question was about. If moon gets an atmosphere how will it affect earth, doesn't matter how it gets an atmosphere as long as it has one. ppl started talking about ribs and sauce. damn you hijackers.
MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
The ensuing landgrab could be the cause of war and other strife until the issue of who owns the moon is decided.
Perfection
The Great Head.
That's only partially correct. It's not really needed to have an atmosphere, it is just needed to hold an atmophere, and numerous other factors (temperature/composition/magnetic fields/solar wind) also have an important impact. Titan (saturn's moon) has a very thick atmophere despite having similar gravity to our moon.
Our moon certainly could have an atmophere, I'd wager it would stick around for a fair bit of time, but it would dissapaite over millions of years.
Of course, us mighty humans could probably prevent that from occuring.
Perfection
The Great Head.
Well, he didn't say what kind of atmophere though. It could make the moon even more hostile.
You think treaties ever stopped anyone?As per Perfections comment, the atmosphere would vanish. I'm not even sure it would stay around for millions of years, but supposing it did, it still wouldn't follow the same density gradient as earths atmosphere and thus would very likely not produce the pressure (or oxygen concentration) at ground level necessary to sustain humans that aren't in spacesuits.
So it would make absolutely no difference to anybody except the hordes of scientists trying to figure out how it got there.
[EDIT] I was assuming the question meant an "earthlike" atmosphere, i.e. a sphere of air would suddenly appear around the moon which temporarily causes earthlike atmospheric density at groundlevel.
Aramazd
Deity
i
That's true, I forgot about that
Changed to the correct smilieYou think treaties ever stopped anyone?
Don't worry Perf,
Perfection
The Great Head.
Of course it would, but I'd reckon not on a human timescale.
It could most certainly have the same pressure as on Earth.
Yeah it would, having just to condition an already existant atmophere is a heck of a lot easier then creating one from scratch.
Edit:
If it has the same the same temperature/density/and composition as air on Earth then by the ideal gas equation it must have the same pressure.
A.
But if you are sure of it I'm not going to argue much about it, you may very well be right...
B.
Perhaps it would be useful for some kind of aircraft? Again, it all comes down to what the result of A) is, and I'm not too optimistic.
C.
[EDIT] Missed this part:
I'm not convinced of this at all. Theres all kinds of considerations such as how the tidal lock or solar heating will affect it (since all the measurements are different: surface area, "thickness" of the atmospheric layer etc.)
But if you are sure of it I'm not going to argue much about it, you may very well be right...
B.
Well I was sloppily applying "use" as in, being able to live on the surface. If you are right on A) then ok, sure, but if A) is wrong then what could you do? Sell the air?
Perhaps it would be useful for some kind of aircraft? Again, it all comes down to what the result of A) is, and I'm not too optimistic.
C.
[EDIT] Missed this part:
Who says it will have the same temperature? and same density again depends on A)
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