The Moon on TF1: Could the Moon Fall to Earth? We have an answer from NASA

As its title suggests, Moonfall tells the story of the moon’s fall to Earth after being de-orbited. A disaster scenario, and that’s a good thing, because genre specialist Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After, Independence Day) is in charge!

But is it possible for the moon to fall and what are the consequences?

Moonfall was named the worst sci-fi movie before Armageddon!

What does NASA specialist Jim Green think?

NASA itself took the time to explain why the Moon wouldn’t be able to fall to Earth in a Twitter/X thread (a thread we have to trace back to discussions with the Moonfall team), and there was no response. Translation required:

And what if the moon still falls? Some answers from Jim Green, NASA’s chief scientist since 2018, who spent an hour on the phone explaining to the Moonfall team what might happen if their doomsday scenario came true. Ringer):

It’s not often known how important the moon’s role is in stabilizing our spin axis, modulating our climate, giving us a good 24 hour spin rate.

Greene goes on to describe the terrible fallout if the moon goes out of orbit:

“All the effects of the Moon on the Earth will disappear. And the Earth will be very unwieldy with its gravity. This means that when it goes around the Sun, we are in a slightly elliptical orbit. So when we are very close. On the Sun we feel a strong pull. And when the Earth As it rotates, there are times during the day when the Earth’s mass is pointing toward the Sun, and the Sun exerts additional pressure on the Earth. And as it rotates, it will begin to spin.”

“It won’t take long for life on Earth to become very difficult”

And this reversal can have drastic consequences:

Our axis of rotation will change. If we imagine the Arctic Circle, where it’s very cold, and we’re touching the Earth, the latitude of the Arctic Circle doesn’t match the little ice cap we have: it probably extends all the way to the US.

“The fact that the United States is getting, for example, only 40 or 50 percent of the sunlight it gets to grow food because it’s tilted — it’s got shorter days — it’s a game changer. It won’t take long to live. It will be very difficult on earth. We will all be gathered in the equatorial zone, and I have news for you: there is not much land in the equatorial zone.

In other words, we really have to hope that Moonfall remains pure fiction and that we poor Earth won’t have to worry about the globe revolving around the sun without the influence of the moon. Or must survive by the billions only in the equatorial zone!