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According to Science ABC, spending time outdoors brings numerous benefits – you can enjoy the sunlight, engage in physical activities, or even go camping under a starry sky. Sitting around a campfire and gazing at the moon is also a special leisure activity. The celestial body closest to us and the beloved satellite of our planet has been a source of fascination and legends for many millennia, ever since humans first appeared on Earth. However, the moon’s lifespan is much longer than human history – over 4 billion years – and it has significantly influenced our lives.
Throughout history, beliefs in the moon’s effects and importance have been painted and gradually faded. Some legends have been proven entirely untrue with new scientific discoveries.
Origin of the Moon
Before we can understand the moon’s impact on Earth, we should discuss the colossal impact that led to the moon’s formation as we see it today. About 4.5 billion years ago, a planet the size of Mars collided with Earth as it was coalescing into a stable planet. This was a massive impact, and a substantial amount of the planet’s molten core was ejected into the nearby space. After the collision, the shattered pieces coalesced over several million years to form the moon as we know it today (at this stage, it was closer to Earth than it is now). You may not know this, but the moon has been gradually moving away from Earth over billions of years, at a current rate of approximately 4 cm per year.
Since its initial formation, the moon has developed a stable relationship with Earth, providing stability, moonlight, and various physical effects on oceans, ecosystems, and even our moods (some believe so). As mentioned above, some moon-related hypotheses are accurate, and some are unfounded.
The Moon’s Influence on Earth
The moon’s influence on Earth primarily manifests in tidal movements, the planet’s tilt, and the history of evolution, including human history on the planet.
Tidal Activity
Although the moon is much smaller than Earth, it possesses gravitational force. Four billion years ago, when the moon was much closer to Earth than it is now, its gravitational pull was significantly stronger. This gravitational pull was stronger on the side of Earth facing the moon, as well as the planet’s center (the opposite side of Earth was less affected by the moon’s gravitational force).
Thus, we have tides on our planet, caused by the rising of water levels on the half of Earth facing the moon. High tides occur on coastal areas worldwide approximately every 12 hours, followed by low tides six hours later. These tides used to be much more extreme when the moon was closer to the planet, but they have gradually diminished over the past 4 billion years as the moon orbits Earth. The moon has also slowed down Earth’s rotation over millions of millennia. Instead of having 6-12 hours in a day, as in the early days of Earth, tidal friction from the rising of the sea level has slowed down our planet’s rotation speed. The moon is still shortening our days, but at an incredibly slow rate, less than 1 second every 50,000 years.
Planetary Tilt
This is one of the intriguing and significant roles that the moon plays in our lives. As most of you know, our planet does not rotate smoothly, like a ball on a tabletop. Instead, it tilts on its axis to create seasons, varying lengths of daylight, and stable climate zones throughout the year.
The moon and Earth are locked in a gravitational dance that helps both maintain a stable orbit. Without the moon to hold Earth in place, our planet’s axis would wobble much more dramatically, potentially tilting it over, as seen with Mars, leading to significant shifts in planetary poles. This would create extreme cases where regions near the North Pole on Earth could sometimes switch to the equator and vice versa. Therefore, long-term settlement in one area would become much more challenging.
Evolutionary History
The moon continues to guide specific cycles for life on the planet, although claims about the moon’s effects on menstruation and birth rates are no longer strongly believed. However, for organisms with biological rhythms tied to lunar cycles (primarily related to nighttime light presence), evolution and survival are undoubtedly influenced if the moon were to suddenly disappear. Lions, bats, insects, and numerous species throughout history have developed certain behaviors linked to the moon’s presence, such as mating, hunting, hibernation, and migration. It’s conceivable that the path of evolutionary history would be very different, and perhaps not even lead to humans as we know them, in the absence of the moon.
Does It Impact the Emergence of Life?
One of the more contentious claims made by some researchers is that, without the moon, life on Earth might not have developed. While there’s no way to predict whether life would have emerged or not, the moon’s presence and its tides certainly aided in the early steps of life on Earth.
It’s widely agreed that life began in Earth’s waters, or in areas with tidal influence, where tides ebb and flow near the shores. If life indeed developed underwater, the tidal movements caused by the moon’s presence helped in the formation of primordial protonucleic particles and eventually DNA. The moon’s tidal effects are vital as they can keep areas moist and dry throughout a day. If water with protonucleic pieces overflowed a warm rock and got dried up, it could have moved primitive pieces of life from water to land through a transitional environment.
Predicting whether life would develop and diversify without the moon is impossible, but the movement of life from the ocean to land was certainly facilitated by the moon’s useful gravitational force.