Does anyone know if the moon is really necessary ...???

Question

I mean...How different might be our planet without it.

Answer 1

The moon is VITAL for life on Earth. The main reason is that it keeps the Earth in balance; it keeps it from wobbling on it's axis. If the earth were to wobble the weather would be too extreme for any life to develop (other than maybe bacteria, and such).

Also something you might not know is that the moon is the perfect size. If it were too small it wouldn't be able to balance the earth. If it were too large it would pull to much, and we be sort of like a binary system and we'd wobble excessively and have long periods of darkness.

The moon is a barrier for comets and such.

So the moon is very important for life on Earth.

Answer 2

Life as we know it would be different. The moon not only greatly affects tides and tectonic activity, but we would also be hit much more often by space rocks too. Look at all the impact craters on the moon - just think if those were all sent to Earth instead!

And we wouldn't have a month, we wouldn't have anything that deals with lunar or moon - no man in the moon. We wouldn't have any kind of solar or lunar eclipse. We wouldn't have had as great of a space program. Our orbit would be slightly different, as the moon adds mass to our earth-moon system, and changes the way we orbit the sun. Earth would not have a slight wobble, and the North Star would always be the North Star without slowly changing.

From the changes above - this could affect anything due to butterfly effect. Storms on the ocean would work differently (seas may be calmer, but probably worse storms). Lots of effects that have not been mentioned.

Without the moon - life would not be anything like we know it now.

Answer 3

Well:

1) No tides. The moon is the cause of over 95% of the tidal forces exerted on our planet.

2) Very little tectonic activity, relative to today - for the same reason.

3) Probably no life, as the early tectonic activity played a part in producing those elements that life needs. (By producing I mean that the tectonic action brought carbon, sulphur, etc. to the surface in the lava flows, cracks in the ocean's floors, etc.)

*JOKES HERE*
4a) Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would have been for a real shock.

4b) No one would know when the Easter Bunny was to arrive because Easter is based on the Lunar calendar.
*JOKES END*

5) If life actually existed, and evolved (see #3), most of the major religions of the Bronze age and before (if we actually had a Bronze Age, see #2) probably would have been much different, not having that celestial body to worship...and most of THOSE evolved into what we have today.

This is just for starters...

Answer 4

The moon is not necessary. The earth would have done just fine without some nearly planet-sized object slamming into it during the early years of planet formation. But it's nice to have something so close to us in interplanetary space. It gives us light at night when the moon is full and it wouldn't be Earth without it.

Answer 5

There have been many debates on this topic. Many people believe that if the moon were to be destroyed the earth would balance differently and we would have amazing weather all year round.

However, other people argue that tides would change, causing major differences, and that there could be other sudden and damaging weather changes.

I believe that it is necessary, at least until we know the extent of the damage that we could cause by removing it.

Answer 6

Without the moon, life as we know it woudl not exist. The moon has been pocketed by countless meteors which otherwise woudl have hit the earth. It causes the tides. Without these two, Meteor shield and tide maker, the earth woudl be a far different place.

Answer 7

I think the moon has something to do with gravity...or the earth's "pull." The moon affects the tides and stuff like that. It's all related...

Also, if there were no moon, it would be totally dark at night, except for the stars...and they don't give off too much light.

Answer 8

Pretty necessary, yeah. I think the main thing it does for us is deflect asteroids - it's done a good job of making sure the Earth doesn't get hit very often. It's gravitational pull can often deflect them if they come close enough, and some will hit it instead of us. Also, the tides may have proven necessary at some point in our evolutionary history, but I don't know much about that.

Answer 9

The moon may mean different things to different people.
It seems to matter to the stability and dynamics of the solar system.

Answer 10

Not too different, except that there would be no tides which would mean that there would be no tide pools, and a lot less diversity of animals,...

It has also been the inspiration of a lot of poets, so life might be less romantic ;)