What if a large astroid hit the moon and made it into three moons?
If the moon was hit by a large enough asteroid to split it into 3, there would be a lot of smaller debris from the impact that would very likely hit the Earth, causing widespread damage and possibly threaten or destroy human society (certainly a lot of people would be killed). The dust and smoke created by these impacts could cause an “impact winter” that could seriously affect food production. The initial impact would cause some of the remaining pieces of the moon to orbit the Earth, and tidal forces from Earth’s gravity would keep them from coalescing into a single object. So no more lunar tides (we would still have the tides from the sun’s gravity, but they are small compared to the moon’s tides). And the moon is believed to have a somewhat stabilizing effect on Earth’s axial wobble, so we might see some seasonal and weather anomalies over time.
