The moon has been
our friendly neighbour in the sky
for billions of years.
It has guided us home,
kept us on time,
protected us,
propelled us into space
and has even launched dance crazes!
It’s hard to fathom what we’d do without it.
But for the sake of science,
let’s try to envision a moonless world.
So how, exactly,
did we get a moon
in the first place?
Scientists believe
it started off with a splash.
The Giant Impact hypothesis,
also known as The Big Splash, theorizes
that a Mars-sized celestial object named
came crashing into Earth
4.5 billion years ago,
tossing vaporized particles
of Earth's crust into space.
At this point, Earth was still a baby,
only 30-50 million years old,
and not much more than molten lava.
Some scientists call this early Earth,
Over time, the debris of Gaia and Theia
joined together in a dance with Earth’s gravity,
and formed the Moon we know and love today.
Lucky for us,
our Moon’s orbit and gravitational pull
tilt the Earth
creating tidal bulges
that help slow the rotation of our planet
just enough for life to safely exist,
or so we think.
Despite a popular theory,
having a moon is no longer
a requirement for life to exist.
So could we really exist without our Moon?
How would we survive?
Well, with a little gravitational help
from our friends,
the Sun
and Jupiter,
life could still have evolved
without a moon.
But how?
Well, with no Moon to keep the Earth
on an even keel,
things might get a little wobbly.
We'd have to put up with
some extreme weather,
our concept of time and seasons
would drastically change,
and we may evolve to look short and stubby.
You can learn more about this in our other video,
There is, however, another hypothesis.
In a study conducted
at the NASA Ames Research Center in 2011,
scientists performed complex simulations,
in which the Earth didn't have its Moon,
and measured the effects on Earth’s
spin over time.
The results were shocking.
They discovered that the Earth’s wobble
would eventually stabilize,
due to Jupiter’s immense gravitational pull,
deviating no more than 10 degrees off its axis.
Thanks, Jupiter!
Scientists have also found
that the Earth might have spun backward
before the Moon formed.
This would mean that the Sun
would rise in the west
and set in the east.
Feeling dizzy yet?
Our sky would be a lot darker than usual
without the Moon to reflect the light of the Sun.
But that would be perfect for stargazing!
Mind you, we’d still have a little bit
of light from Venus
to help light our way in the dark,
but the Moon is 2,000 times brighter.
At the very least,
we wouldn’t have to put up with
wolves keeping us awake at night.
Farmers would have to be careful
with their crops without a Harvest moon,
and women’s menstrual cycles would change.
Despite these conditions,
there’s a lot more to our Moon
than just pure science.
Without it,
our whole idea of the Universe
could change dramatically,
slowing our progress as a species.
If it weren’t for Italian astronomer Galileo’s
discovery of the Moon’s
spherical shape in 1609,
we’d probably still think
that the Earth was the center of the Universe,
"Houston, we have a problem."
an idea proposed by Aristotle in 284 BCE
that was widely accepted for over 1,500 years!
Our moon was instrumental
in launching the Space Race,
which propelled humans to the stars.
In the words of Neil Armstrong,
going to the Moon was
one small step for man,
and one giant leap for mankind!
Without it, who knows
if we’d even bother traveling to space?
And would there be any chance of us
ever becoming space tourists?