What would happen if the moon suddenly drifted off into space?
the tides would not stop immediately, they would have inertia (like ripples in a pond) but also the tectonics would also stop (as these are also caused by tidal effects) the earth is in a binary system with the moon, almost a double planet, as the moon is bigger than mercury and a quarter the size of earth, so our planet would drift further out in it’s orbit, but this would take several years too basically thou, the earth would cool, from lack of tidal forces and distance from the sun increasing. but rest easy, the moon is actually moving closer very slowly and will likely hit the earth in a few billion years, so we dont have to worry about it leaving our orbit and drifting off.
