How would the absence of the moon affect the earth?

Question

This is a hypothetical question for my college astronomy class

Answer 1

Lessening of the tides. There wouldn't be a complete lack of tides, they would just be less intense. The Sun causes tides on Earth, too, but the tides from the Sun are only about half as strong as those from the Moon.

Lack of eclipses (of course).

Also, it's believed that the Moon helps to stablize the Earth's axis of rotation - without it, instead of always being tilted 23.5 degrees, it would vary. And of course any good astronomy student knows that the Earth's tilt is what causes the seasons!

Answer 2

There is an astronomical book that tells much of the repercussions of the Earth without a moon. Kris alluded to the destabilization of the Earth if the moon wasn't there. A very serious consequence is the Earth would eventually tilt with its north & south poles in the plane of the ecliptic. bad bad bad Of course, as the tilt got worse & worse the ice would leave the poles & return to the poles. At one point during its yearly orbit the north pole would point straight at the sun for months driving temperatures into the hundreds(?) of fahrenheit degrees while the south pole would be in darkness for months driving south pole temperatures to less than present winter pole temperatures. Six months later, the south pole would be pointing toward the sun & north pole away from the sun, driving temperatures to change 250 or 300 Fahrenheit degrees. Such extremes would have to stress life so much as to force life into world-wide migrations continually if land forms allowed, or kill large life forms completely. Find the book. Its very good.

Answer 3

i love space and all that good stuff. i think what would happen is the earth would not orbit like it should, and would get unbalanced. wildlife and a lot of living things live to the cycles of the moon as well. but you do know the moon moves away from the earth 1 1/2 inches every year? i'm sure if its that measurement ecactly, but the moon is vital to earth , just think back when the dinos were around the moon was so huge in the sky, like 10 times as big as the full moon!

Answer 4

did not Marvin the Martian already attempt to objective this with his Plutonium Pu-238 area Modulator? Thank goodness for insects Bunny and Duck Dodgers! yet truly, the size of the explosion mandatory might want to be huge, and the mass of the moon might want to nevertheless be there, basically in smaller products, so the gravitational result might want to be minimum. more desirable in all probability that the moon will be destroyed even as that's hit with the help of a few quickly-shifting merchandise like a meteor or asteroid. yet we already see evidence of previous strikes in all the craters on the moon. i think that something huge sufficient to ruin the moon has already been sucked into the gravity properly of another, higher merchandise contained in the picture voltaic device.

Answer 5

Probably the biggest effect would be lessening of tides. The oceans would quickly stagnate and all sea life would die. Since the majority of the earth's oxygen is produced by phytoplankton in the oceans, the world would both suffocate (from lack of oxygen) and asphyxiate (from CO2 poisoning)

Answer 6

Besides slowing tides, the lack of a moon would be detrimental to determining some holidays and calendars. See also http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/33/33.html for a discussion about this topic.

Answer 7

The moon causes waves on the ocean.....that would definately be affected. Plus, no light at night except for stars.
there must be a scientific answer for that

Answer 8

The ocean would be tideless, however it would not be dead still, because the earth's rotation still causes wind and some water movement. Not sure would happen after that....it's total speculation.

Answer 9

I came in here ready to mention tides but the first guy beat me to it.

Answer 10

For one thing, the redhead and I wouldn't have anything to look at when I pull up on Friday nights...