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[–] 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Nearing the end of When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi, which came out a few months ago. It's a bit silly but I'd recommend it. The premise can be summed up as, "What would happen if the moon turned into cheese?"

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I guess...uh...that it'd be less dense, so that'd dick up tides on Earth.

    https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.html

    Mean density (kg/m³): 3344

    https://eurekamag.com/research/001/061/001061121.php

    At 8 deg C, mean densities of blockformed and conventionally-hooped cheeses were, resp., 1.094 and 1.091 g/ml.

    So that's 1094 kg/m³.

    Basically, Earth's tides would be about a third as strong, which I imagine would affect a bunch of things, especially coastal ecology. Dunno how much tides affect weather.

    Also, probably alters the reflectivity of the Moon, so would affect the brightness of the Moon. Might affect a lot of nocturnal critters and such. Hard to estimate, since that depends a lot on what cheese is involved.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    In the book, it kept the same mass and got a lot bigger. And of course much brighter.

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