what would happen if the moons orbit around earth was destabilised

Question: what would happen if the moons orbit around earth was destabilised
- Keywords:
- Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more about:
  
  moon
  
  orbit
Asked by tryranidhive to Alex, Anaïs, Peter, Sarwat, Shreesha on 10 Mar 2015.
- Alexander Henderson answered on 10 Mar 2015:
  
  This would massively affect the world’s tides!
- Peter Maskell answered on 10 Mar 2015:
  
  tides would be messed up. worse case scenario could fly off into space or crash into the earth.
- Shreesha Bhat answered on 10 Mar 2015:
  
  Apart from the tides, it is very important (and easily missed) that the moon is a stabilizing factor for the axis of rotation of the Earth. If the moon somehow got away from its orbit, it could cause random shifts in the rotational axis of the earth, and hence can cause extreme change of seasons, where one moment you could feel like you are in Antarctica and a few days later probably like in the Hot Sahara desert! The gravitational stability provided by the moon is what makes earth unique, as the less climatic changes have allowed the emergence of more complex multi-cellular organisms compared to a planet where drastic climatic change would allow only small, robust organisms to survive.
- Anaïs Pujol answered on 11 Mar 2015:
  
  The moon has a lots of influence on the earth, like tide, stabilize the Earth, and protect it from any bombardment. The moon can’t slip off its orbit like that, however the effect of the tidal force affect slightly the direction of its orbit which makes our day longer. If the loss of the moon may happen (again really slow), it won’t cause dramatic ill-effect but rather a very slowly waning effect and an inevitable loss of some stability.
- Sarwat Iqbal answered on 11 Mar 2015:
  
  I support all the answers.

Question: what would happen if the moons orbit around earth was destabilised

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