![]() ![]() Image via NASA.īottom line: How our planet would be different, if Earth didn’t have a moon. But Pluto and its moon are even closer in size. Notice that the moon is pretty big relative to Earth. But bodies on the opposite side of the earth accelerate towards our. Selected moons of the solar system, with the Earth for scale. Sure, the falling bodies at his side still float as if there were no gravity at all. So – if you’re imagining Earth with no moon – you have to imagine our day on Earth much shorter than our present-day 24 hours. If there was no earth (and no other planets/sun), the moon would continue going in a straight line as shown by the solid arrow. The ebb and flow of the tides are what put the brakes on Earth’s spin. ![]() Our world’s cycle of day and night was less than 10 hours long. It’s because, billions of years ago when Earth was young, our planet spun around on its axis much faster. As the Moon keeps moving away from Earthat a current rate of 3.82 centimeters (1.5 in) per yearour world loses rotational energy and slows down its spin. Imagine no romantic moonlight walks – no concept of moon madness, or lunacy.īut the biggest change – for us humans and for other earthly life – would be in the length of Earth’s day. What’s more, the moon has a place in human culture. If we’d never had a moon, we’d still have tides, but they wouldn’t be as strong. The moon and sun together cause the tides. A weird animated graphic depicting a distorted, lumpy Earth has gone viral over the ‘Net in the past few days, claiming that this is what the Earth looks like without. We might never have begun to venture out into the solar system. With no moon, there’d be no nearby world for astronauts to visit. That’s because many calendars are based on the changing phases of the moon. The word month, after all, stems from a word that means moon. No calendars based on a system of months. So Earth without its large nearby moon would be a very different world indeed. These planets wouldn’t miss a moon or two if one got knocked out of orbit. Jack Buckey is a one-time NASA astronaut, and he said that our bodies are adapted to a gravitational environment similar to Earth. Most moons in our solar system are tiny relative to the planets they orbit. If there was never gravity in the universe there would be no elements greater than Hydrogen and it would forever expand and not interact. ![]()
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