Moonless Earth Could Potentially Still Support Life, Scientists Say
The moon has a stabilizing effect on Earth. Scientists have pondered whether such a large moon is also necessary for complex life.
CREDIT: NASA
Scientists have long believed that, without our moon, the tilt of the Earth would shift greatly over time, from zero degrees, where the Sun remains over the equator, to 85 degrees, where the Sun shines almost directly above one of the poles.
A planet's stability has an effect on the development of life. A planet see-sawing [...]
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This story was provided by Astrobiology Magazine, a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA astrobiology program.
I find it very interesting that, after a lifetime of being told that the rest of the solar system has no measurable effect on our planet (therefore certainly nothing beyond it could, therefore astrology is hooey, which actually completely misunderstands how astrology works in the first place anyway), and at a time when folks are questioning whether an alignment, even one that's only approximate, might cause, for instance, perturbations in the solar windstream or some other unpredictable event or series of events, suddenly the effects of the other planets are great enough that we might not even need the moon. (Let's blow it up and find out, shall we? :D)
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