How would the world be without the moon?

Answer 1

The real answer is that we would almost certainly not have evolved without the moon; experts give these main reasons

The stability of the earth's rotational axis---it always remains nearly 23 degrees---is due partly to the Moon's presence; without it, the Earth's axis would wobble much more violently, so that seasons would be far more severe. [This wobble would occur over thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, but that might have been enough to affect evolution dramatically.] We could even from time to time orbit on our backs like the planet Uranus!

The length of the day might have been much shorter.

There would be greatly reduced ocean tides or tidal reaches so that the development of much of marine life, and certainly the development of Amphibian and the settlement of Dry Land, would have been greatly affected, perhaps prevented.

As for the present, our civilization might find it hard to adapt to a sudden withdrawal of the Moon, but could learn to cope with a slow drifting away---which is in fact occurring at a rate of about 3 cm/year.


That is the "short" answer, but if you want more information, this website explains in detail, but in easy terms how the moon and earth interact and so you can conclude further for yourself what the planet would be like without it.

http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/earthmoon.html

Answer 2

Without the Moon, there would be NO LIFE. Period.

Life supposedly began in small tidal pools, which without the moon, we wouldn't have had. Also, we the Moon was first created, it was 18x closer than it is now. That means even the land rose and fell like the seas do now. Can you imagine the earthquakes, volcanoes and such caused merely because the moon was traveling around the planet? Wherever the moon went the land would rise up under it and try to reach up towards it. The ENORMOUS effect this would have on the earth must have been staggering, tearing mountains down in volcanic rifts and building other ranges up in matters of months. The earth would have been like a mad top, spinning and creating earthquakes as the moon moved to the north and then back again as it headed south, with the tidal forces following it. Of course this was around 4 Billion years ago, but over the Billions of years, its effects were still enormous. Finally, it reached far enough away that the earth wasn't being pulled up below it to a degree that would impact the surface on any large scale. This allowed erosion, grasses and plants to grow and animals to move in to the equatorial regions. Around 600-750 million years ago, life burst forth and the moon has been a great help to it, guiding it and lighting its way.

Without the moon, someone might be here, but it would not be "us." If we had not moon, we would have no tides, no way to move many of our ships, our entire maritime system would have to be redone, a great portion of our marine life would die out, the oceans wouldn't be so alive. It just doesn't bear thinking about.

Answer 3

I've read some of the other answers and would like to add that the variation between day temperatures and night temperatures would be much greater. And so would the maximum temperatures of summer and the minimum temperatures of winter. The moon is largely responsible for the tides and the resultant ocean currents. Water has a very high specific heat capacity. So heated water is circulated to regulate the temperature of Earth by keeping it more or less fixed within a small range around an acceptable median.

With much colder winters and much hotter summers, life would be EXTREMELY difficult..

And, oh, yes, there would be no polar icecaps!!

Answer 4

1. There would be only very weak tidal effect from the sun and other planets. Tides are considered key to development of life on Earth.

2. The day would be much shorter and there would be much weaker seasonal effects. This is because the moon's large gravitational force has had a breaking effect on the earth's rotation. As the earth rotations its able to remain its orientation with respect to the solar plane. Just like a child's top, when its spinning very fast is stays upright, but as it slows down it wobbles. The slowing down of the earth's rotation, caused largely from the gravity of the moon has caused it to wobble, currently the wobble is at a 23.5 degree angle. This angle makes the northern hemisphere receive more sunlight in summer and less in winter, thus the seasons. The slowing down has also lengthened the day to our current 24 hours.

Answer 5

There would still be tides, but only solar tides, which are much weaker. The earth would be spinning faster, so our day would be a few hours shorter.

As to whether life could exist, there are just too many variables to know for sure. Some scientists believe life could not have developed without a moon, or if it did develop, it could not have become very complex. Others think life would have been affected very little.

Answer 6

Well it is an imaginary question but i would answer it. i think it would be dark at nights and the movement of sea tides would be greatly affected as there would be no gravitational pull of moon(which is not present).

Answer 7

The movement of the tides would be greatly affected.

And the word loony would no longer apply.

Answer 8

We would probably die without the moon. and there willl be no Lunar eclipse

Answer 9

Really really dark at night.

Really dark.

xx

Answer 10

very dark at night, no tide in the oceans...it would be very different