the moon is one of those things we all count on being there in the sky
when's the last time you ever pondered the idea of losing it luckily hollywood is around to take
that burden for you in movies like moon4 where we get to see in imax how the world would look unless
halle berry can save the day but what does science think would happen if the moon vanished
number 10. raining debris no one wants to get hit with rocks from space as witnessed by both
movie armageddon and the actual extinction of the dinosaurs when debris from space hits the
earth it's cataclysmic it's an end of the world event except of course when it isn't the rock
that killed the dinosaurs likely came from far outside our solar system the moon is literally
just next door that means if the moon were to explode somehow fragments would definitely fall
to earth however these fragments would have far less energy behind them it's more or less
the difference between dropping a penny off the empire state building or dropping one off your
shed moon debris hitting earth would rain down at about eight kilometers per second which is faster
than you ever wanted chunk of the moon to be but still slow relatively speaking most asteroids hit
at a minimum of 20 kilometers a second and up to as much as 100 kilometers a second the difference
in destructive potential is pretty remarkable as a result the end result is that every piece of
moon would have one percent of the destructive potential of a similarly sized asteroid none of
this means that the world wouldn't face utter devastation but what it does mean is that we
wouldn't risk extinction instead we'd just deal with a massive loss of life whole cities being
flattened and a bafflingly complex cleanup effort plus the side effects of no longer having a moon
9. seasonal shifts the earth rotates the way that it does because of the moon the tilt at the
earth's axis needs the moon to hold it in place if the moon were to up and vanish on us one day the
gravitational pull holding the specific tilt that allows for a change in seasons as we rotate around
the sun would be lost that means the earth's axis could change in very unpredictable ways we
could lose seasons altogether or we could get the opposite if the tilt became dramatic the effect on
seasons and weather would become catastrophic the earth could suffer extreme weather like it's never
experienced before a potential new ice age and countless other phenomena that could render the
planet uninhabitable without the moon affecting the earth's rotational speed wind would be faster
and much more furious you can look at mars as an example of what happens without a moon as an axial
stabilizing force the tilt of the martian axis has varied greatly over its history number eight
dark knights and lots of them the moon reflects about 3 to 12 of the sunlight that hits it small
numbers but we've all been out under a full moon to appreciate just how bright that can actually be
with no moon that light vanishes entirely and night time would become incredibly dark devoid of
man-made light it would literally be impossible to see so we'd have to have artificial light sources
everywhere but just at night right well that's a problem too nice as we know it exists because of
the moon the gravitational pull of the moon is what determines how long night and day on earth
are if the moon vanished the gravity goes with it right now it pulls on the water of the oceans
that creates friction between water and earth the earth rotates every 24 hours because the
moon's gravity pulls the water of the oceans with enough force to slow the earth to that speed with
no moon the water on earth can spread out more there would be far less friction as the water
would be able to spin with the earth that means the earth spins faster instead of 12-hour days
you'll be seeing the sun rise every 6-12 hours 7. ironically brighter night skies so sure we just
said that the night world would become a tomb of all-encompassing blackness but technically
it would also be much brighter not in a useful way of course you wouldn't be able to play a game
of cards it would still be dark down here on earth but the sky itself would look otherworldly without
the moon reflecting all that sunlight you'd have an incredible view of the stars every single day
of course you have nights now where you get a good view of the stars but that's only when the
moon isn't in view this would become an every night thing given all the other mayhem caused
by a missing moon it's not likely we'd have much time to appreciate this but it's nice to think you
might have a minute to view the stars before all hell breaks loose 6. tidal shifts everyone knows
that the moon controls the tides and we'd see how that works in a practical sense with no moon the
tide level would drop by about one-third without the moon pulling on waters around the world
as the moon pulls on the earth it actually causes the planet to bulge a little towards the moon and
that's where you get high tides the same thing happens on the opposite side of the planet as the
earth rotates the part of the world you live in will pass through one of these bulges and
that's high tide when you pass out that's low tide without the moon the tide has much less power the
sun still pulls on the oceans but its pull is weaker because it's so far away that's why we'd
have tides with a much lower level than they are now and that's a problem the tidal ecosystem keeps
a lot of sea life thriving without the shifting tide stirring up the ocean as much as it does
a lot of sea life could lose access to food that could potentially lead to serious population
declines and even the extinction of many species and what starts in the water can easily transfer
to land birds and wildlife rely on sea life to live and they may lose their food sources and
the damage to nature increases much of our climate is dependent on tides as well ocean currents need
tides to work with weaker tides those warm and cold currents that spread around the world will
be diminished and that means more extreme and unpredictable weather and climate conditions
5. the end of the world not to bury the lead but it's hard to know how to decide what happens to
the world if you don't exactly know why the moon disappeared so let's see what happens if
the moon was properly broken apart so instead of one big moon we now have two smaller moons
this could theoretically happen if a large enough asteroid hit the moon at just the right angle
it's implausible but it's maybe possible if the moon were to break in two and we ended up
with two new moons of smaller size the result on earth would very likely be some end-of-day-style
destruction with two objects pulling on the earth instead of one the shifts and gravitational forces
would wreak havoc this could massively increase dangerous weather patterns and also seismic and
volcanic activity the earth would begin to spin faster volcanic ash would spew into the atmosphere
tsunamis and earthquakes would destroy things and in general the world would become a much worse
place on the upside the odds of the moon somehow splitting in two and both fragments remaining in
orbit to cause this are astronomical so this is all just a fanciful theory but the physics
mostly sound number four the end of eclipses not everything about losing the moon needs to
be death and destruction consider that you'd never see another lunar or solar eclipse again
this would not ruin anyone's life in any way whatsoever and is arguably the most
noticeable yet least devastating effect of life without no moon for that reason it's potentially
the best side effect if you want to call it that of course that wouldn't prevent any of the other
terrible things but it'd be a fun distraction for about a minute number three you'd sleep better
forget everything we said about the end of the world stuff because that's its own issue let's
say the moon vanished and the earth was still here and we're all alive and just dandy then what well
weirdly enough research suggests that you've got a solid night's sleep maybe every night on the days
leading up to a full moon research shows that people tend to go to sleep later and get less
sleep overall it's not just one group of people in one place either this research covered rural
communities in argentina all the way through to students in seattle everyone's sleep pattern seems
to be affected the same way the effect is less on people in urban areas but it's still there the
conclusion was that the moon has an effect on human circadian rhythms this means that
with no moon there's no longer an effect you would be arguably going to sleep when you wanted and
sleeping longer every night number two there might not be an earth at all there's much to consider
about what would happen if the moon disappeared today but what if it never was how would the
world have evolved differently well it's possible that it simply never would have billions of years
back a mass the size of mars collided with the primordial earth they call that mass thea when
seer and primal earth collided it busted the world asunder the chunk of earth that broke off in the
impact became the moon meanwhile the bits of earth and thea that squished together generated enough
heat and mayhem to really start the ovens of life working at least on a cosmic scale as the sun was
beginning to heat up it blasted the solar system with solar winds these are the kinds of things
that strip the atmosphere away from planets like mars but earth survived the reason seems to be
that earth and the moon shared a magnetic field this essentially set up a powerful shield against
the damaging power of the early sun and preserved the atmosphere of the earth though the moon has no
magnetic field now there is evidence of magnetism in the rocks found there when it was first formed
it may have been warm enough to have its own molten core that allowed for a small magnetic
field one powerful enough to bolster the earth and shield it from the sun number one life may never
have happened this is another what if scenario that goes way back to the beginning of life on
earth this was after the moon saved the planet with its magnetic field and the stage was set
for life to develop but there's a chance that had the moon not been there life would have not
developed at all the idea here is not set in stone because so much of this is still a mystery but
one widespread theory about the emergence of life relies heavily on tide pools in the early days of
the earth the tides would have been coming in and out every six hours these tides would have been
unlike anything we can imagine today traveling far inland and covering huge parts of the world these
tidal changes would have led to a highly saline low tide environment that was perfect for the
development of the simplest molecules that formed early dna as tides came and went these molecules
what scientists called protonucleic acids would form and come apart again and again this set the
groundwork for simple life to develop and the rest is a very long and complicated history of biology
that said if the tides were not there to provide the action to create this big dna smoothie life
may never have begun so i really hope you found this video interesting if you did please do hit
that thumbs up button below and don't forget to subscribe and as always thank you for watching
you