Our moon does several important things for us. The most notable effect are the tides which are affected by moon’s gravitational pull. The moon also anchors Earth’s axial tilt at a more or less steady 23.44 degrees. It has been theorized that the Moon’s presence has slowed the rotation of the Earth from a rather rushed and hectic 8 hour day to a much more laid back and easy-to-get-along-with 24 hour day.
Some scientists have proposed that the Moon as we know it today was actually once apart of the Earth. Proponents of what’s called “The Giant Impact Hypothesis” put forward that when the Earth was still mostly molten, a Mars sized object collided with Earth and all the blobbie bits that were floating about in space convalesced into La Luna.
The Earth and the Moon have become so accustomed to each other that the Moon now has what’s called a “Synchronous Rotation”, meaning that the time it takes for the moon to rotate is about the same time it takes for the Earth to rotate. This means that as long as there have been humans, we’ve only ever seen one side of our moon from Earth.
There is some troubling news though. The Moon is moving away from us at a rate of one and a half inches every year. This means that there will come a time when the Moon gets bored with us bombing it and moves on to pastures new. This would be devastating. First of all, say goodbye to tides and all of the fish that use them for reproductive purposes. Also, nocturnal animals that once depended on the little lunar illumination that they were provided would now be, in a very real way, left in the dark. In fact, once the moon gets tired of our shenanigans and goes of to orbit something not so silly, it would more than likely trigger the end to life on our planet.
Without the Moon’s stabilizing presence, the Earth would grow lazy and might start rotating on which ever axis it wanted. Hey, Antarctica might be the new resort location and brave souls might try to endure harsh and unforgivable frozen wastelands of Brazil. Of course, a far more likely scenario is that humans would become extinct just like everything else. Massive and sudden climate changes are usually catastrophic for all life.
This, though, would probably never happen. Long before the moon jumps ship, the sun will have expended all of its fuel, evolve into a “Red Giant”, expand (as Red Giants do) and destroy the Earth and anything else in its path.
But cheer up, this isn’t scheduled to happen for another five billion years or so. At our current rate, we’ll destroy the Earth long before the Sun or Moon gets a chance to. So let’s hear it for being ahead of the curve! High Five! Anybody? Anybody?
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