Look to the sky! Is it a bird? This is a plane? No, it's the moon!
The moon has been an integral part of human culture from the very beginning. Ever since the first people began to make art in caves, the moon has already been a special element of their paintings. And she, of course, still remains special to us. Since this is our closest satellite in space, humans have shared millennia of evolution with the Moon in many ways.
But we usually don't think about what would have happened if the Moon had never accompanied us. What if the moon never existed or disappeared today? Can we expect everything on our planet to remain the same?
In fact, we see that everything that makes the Earth special can be lost in the absence of this dusty object orbiting us.
10. The seasons on Earth are going to be crazy
While the Earth revolves around the Sun, it also revolves on its own axis, which is slightly tilted. Currently, the Earth's axis of rotation has an inclination of about 23.4 degrees, this value does not change during the year.
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As a result, in a certain part of the year, the Northern Hemisphere is more oriented towards the Sun than the Southern. Six months later, when the Earth is on the opposite side of its orbit around the Sun, the Southern Hemisphere is facing the star. Thus, both hemispheres of the Earth receive different amounts of sunlight and heat depending on the seasons.
The reason the Earth is tilted about its axis brings us back to its formation 4.5 billion years ago. When the early version of the Earth collided with another planetary body, its axis of rotation tilted sharply. The moon's gravity then stabilized this tilt to its current one, with slight fluctuations over the millennia.
So what would happen if the moon didn't exist?
Well, some experts believe the Earth would be tilted 85 degrees more than it is now. Others are more modest and suggest that this slope could be up to 20 degrees. Either way, the Earth's axis would be tilted so strongly that the poles would be exposed to the Sun, leading to melting ice caps and extreme climate shifts. In fact, a change of only one degree in the tilt of our planet's axis is enough to cause an ice age.
9. The oceans will sink
Among the most famous effects that the Moon produces on Earth are ocean tides. Together with the Sun, the Moon is responsible for raising and lowering the level of our seas several times a day. When the Moon orbits the Earth, gravity is the first to pull the oceans toward it, and thus the tides are created.
Basically, the closer the moon, the higher the tides. To get an idea of the strength of the moon over the oceans, the maximum height difference between high and low tides can be up to 16 meters.
If there was no moon to cause this effect, ocean tides would be greatly reduced. The tides would still exist because the sun's gravitational force also plays a role in controlling Earth's water, although its attraction is less than that of the Moon.
In short, the tides would be reduced to one third of their current size and the oceans would be much calmer. Sea level would also be affected. Without the gravity of the Moon, ocean water would be evenly redistributed over the entire surface of the Earth. Therefore, the sea level at the poles would rise sharply.
8. Say goodbye to any other moon
The Earth's gravitational pull affects the altitude at which our spaceships orbit the planet. For this reason, some structures in low orbits, such as the International Space Station, must periodically adjust their course to avoid entering the Earth's atmosphere.
However, there are points in space with a perfect balance between the gravity of the Earth and the Moon. Everything that is at these points remains relatively stationary in relation to both celestial bodies. Neither the Earth nor the Moon can attract an object until it hits any of their surfaces. These are Lagrange points.
In 2018, Hungarian astronomers discovered that at two of these points - L4 and L5 - are huge clouds of interplanetary dust orbiting the Earth, and their size is nine times the size of our planet. In addition, another study claims that Lagrange points can momentarily capture small asteroids that become Earth's temporary “mini-moons” before resuming their travels.
If there was no moon, the Lagrange points shared with the Earth would also disappear. The dusty clouds trapped there would simply dissipate, eventually crossing the Earth, or be blown away by the solar wind and gravity of other planets. In the case of asteroids, the absence of the Moon would cause these objects to continue to traverse space on a constant trajectory until they collide with a large body - perhaps our own world.
7. How about shorter days?
One of the things that makes our planet so livable is the timing of its rotation. Currently, the Earth makes one revolution every 24 hours, namely 23 hours and 56 minutes. This allows the planet to have a pleasant climate for life because its entire surface has enough time to warm and cool depending on the time of day. But it was not always so. Scientists today are convinced that the days of the Earth were much shorter millions of years ago.
When the Earth and Moon formed 4.5 billion years ago, the planet was spinning so fast that a day lasted only four hours. At the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the day had already lasted 23 hours. And on June 30, 2012, clocks around the world had to mark an extra second before 00:00 to keep up with longer days.
The reason for this delay is none other than the Moon. The fact is that the gravity of the Moon creates frictional forces on the Earth itself and slows down the rotation of the planet by two milliseconds every 100 years. As the Moon continues to move away from the Earth at a rate of 3.82 centimeters per year, our world loses rotational energy and slows it down.
If the moon did not exist from the beginning, we would expect the days to be several hours shorter than today. If the moon disappeared now, the days would remain almost unchanged and would last for about 24 hours. But if everything remains the same as it has been until now, the days will last about 25 hours in about 180 million years.
6. Forget plate tectonics
By this time, we already know for sure that the gravity of the Moon has a great influence on natural processes on Earth. For example, we know that the Moon causes ocean tides. But the Moon is so powerful over our world that it also produces tides on solid earth - what we know as earth tides.
Earth tides are fluctuations in the relative height of the earth's crust with a daily frequency similar to that of ocean tides. Since the Moon is constantly pulling the surface of our planet, the earth below us can rise up to 30 centimeters at certain times of the day. This is due to the elasticity of the earth's crust, which has cracks that allow the movement of large continents - tectonic plates.
Speaking of tectonic plates, what will happen to them if there is no moon?
It is believed that the Moon originated after the Earth lost most of its original crust during an interplanetary collision. If the moon had never been formed, all of this crust would have remained on Earth, filling in the gaps that oceans are in today.
There would be no tectonic plates on Earth because there would be no room for them to move. In addition, the surface of the Earth would consist of a single piece, which would prevent the processes necessary for the formation of mountains. It's right. There would be no mountains on our planet, except for a few scattered volcanoes. Assuming there was still an ocean on Earth, water would cover the entire surface of the planet.
Some studies show that earth tides are associated with small earthquakes. There is a possibility that mild earthquakes occur when the stress in the crust caused by the pull of the moon is large. Thus, if the Moon disappears today and the tides on Earth decrease significantly, the frequency of such shocks will also decrease.
5. We would have lost the shield from unwanted space bodies
Today we know that the Earth is being bombarded by small meteorites at a higher frequency than previously thought. The number of meteor impacts on our planet has tripled over the past 290 million years, to the point that 33 tons of space debris falls to Earth every day. Due to their size, most of these stones are completely burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. However, without the presence of the Moon, the impact speed could be much higher, which would make the Earth a rather hostile place.
The Moon is nearly 3,500 kilometers in diameter - about 27 percent of the Earth's diameter. Due to its large size, the Moon served as a protection for the Earth during cosmic disasters.
In the early days of the planet's existence, the Moon attracted to itself most of the interplanetary debris and asteroids wandering in this region of the solar system. If our natural satellite did not exist, the vicinity of the Earth would be like a minefield, too dangerous for the development of life.
Even today, the Moon still looks like a small shield that protects us from the impact of meteorites. Research shows that the gravity of the moon helps prevent more asteroid collisions with Earth than it causes.
And what is it worth?
Well, between 2005 and 2013, NASA detected over 300 impacts on the lunar surface. This means that in the absence of the Moon, hundreds of such bodies could eventually affect us. Thus, in this sense, it is difficult to imagine the Earth without the Moon.
4. No more Moon, no more gold
Gold, platinum, palladium, iridium. These metallic elements have proven to be extremely valuable to our civilization. We have used them in all kinds of inventions, from cars and spaceships to electronics and jewelry. But again, it is likely that we would not have had such materials without the Moon.
Why?
To understand this, we need to delve a little deeper into the facts related to the formation of the moon. About 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized rock that scientists called Theia hit right into the hot, molten surface of early Earth.
Both the outer layer of Theia and part of the Earth's mantle were ejected into space, agglomerating in Earth's orbit and forming the Moon. However, Theia's core remained here on Earth, and the metals that made up Theia became part of our planet.
If the Moon never formed, the concentration of precious metals in the Earth's mantle would be much lower. This is because metals like gold and platinum tend to be attracted to iron. On a molten planet like Earth, these metals would initially sink until they reached the iron core. They would be stuck there forever once the core started to cool down.
But thanks to the formation of the Moon after an interplanetary impact, large amounts of metallic elements were scattered in the Earth's mantle. There they waited until seismic activity pulled them to the surface towards us.
3. The Earth's magnetic field will be disabled forever
The Earth's magnetic field (or magnetosphere) is essential for the development of life on this planet. Such a magnetic bubble surrounds the Earth and constantly protects it from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that come from the Sun with a force that destroys our atmosphere. But the magnetosphere also protects us because it prevents harmful cosmic and solar radiation from bombarding our lives.
The magnetosphere exists thanks to the geodynamo, which is the rotational motion of the Earth's molten iron core. This movement of the internal magnetic metals keeps the magnetosphere strong.
This geodynamo exists due to the tidal forces that the Moon acts on the Earth. As the Moon flattens and stretches the inner layers of the Earth with its gravitational force, enough energy is generated to keep the planet's core hot and moving.
If we did not have the Moon and its rotational energy, the Earth's core would stop moving and then solidify. With the loss of geodynamics, the planet's magnetosphere will disappear, allowing the solar wind to completely absorb the atmosphere. Without an atmosphere, every reservoir of water on the Earth's surface will evaporate, and solar radiation will turn our world into a barren desert.
In fact, this description could ideally be applied to what happened to Mars. Once like Earth, Mars lost its magnetosphere 4.2 billion years ago, becoming the scorched red planet it is today.
2. Warning: crazy weather
If it weren't for the moon, the weather on Earth would go crazy. Of course, this assumes that there would still be an atmosphere on Earth. First, the destabilization of the Earth's axis due to the absence of the Moon will cause extreme changes in global temperatures.
Since the poles will remain exposed to the sun's heat longer, the surrounding oceans could reach temperatures of at least 47 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, areas on the equator will suffer from glaciation.
The phases of the moon in the sky also affect the amount of precipitation in the region. When the moon is overhead, atmospheric pressure and air temperature rise, resulting in less precipitation for that location. If the moon did not exist, we could expect more rain. But the effect caused by the moon is so minimal that the increase in precipitation is only 1 percent.
In addition, we know that faster-rotating planets also have stronger winds. For example, a day on Jupiter lasts about 10 hours, and its wind is 160-320 kilometers per hour.
Meanwhile, Saturn orbits in about 10.5 hours with winds that can reach 1,800 kilometers per hour. And, as we discussed earlier, without the Moon, the Earth would rotate faster, and the days could be, in fact, several hours less.
Under these conditions, and despite the obvious differences between the planets (such as Earth and Jupiter in terms of size and composition), the winds on our planet could reach speeds of 160 kilometers per hour on any given day. Hurricanes will have even stronger winds with more destructive force.
1. It would be a world devoid of intelligent life
Despite everything we have already discussed, we did not get into the fact that complex life on Earth might not exist at all without the Moon taking care of us. Without the Moon, the Earth would be hit by a large number of large asteroids and planetary bodies. In such a scenario of life, it would be difficult to try to exist, which means that it is less likely that living things would become more complex over time.
It is believed that the stabilization of the Earth's axis provided by the Moon, combined with continental drift, has created many different ecosystems across the planet. These ecosystems, which were more complex than in the days of the dinosaurs, contributed to the emergence of mammals and, ultimately, humans. Thus, if the moon never existed, creatures like us would also be less likely to appear.
But it is possible that even life as we know it would not have appeared on Earth if the Moon had not helped. We know that life originated in the primordial oceans, where molecules fused to form nucleic acids, the elementary building blocks of life. Without the gravitational pull of the moon, there would not be a sufficient concentration of salt in seawater for such vital chemistry.
Since the Moon controls the tides on Earth, and the tides transport the minerals necessary for the existence of marine life, it is difficult to imagine life in the oceans without our natural satellite to make this possible. It's also worth mentioning that without the Earth's magnetosphere, for which the Moon is largely responsible, solar radiation will destroy the oceans, destroying all chances of vital chemical processes occurring there.
This is why, in search of habitable worlds in other regions of the galaxy, scientists are focusing on planets with large moons that support the development of life.