Is the moon necessary for life?

[GenesForLife]

I hate it when moonlight wakes me up.

Moonlight Sonata my arse.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The moon was originally a part of earth and was knocked away by a big asteroid. The earth would have been biggerer if that hadn't happened. So we'd all have biggerer muscle bits to compensate for the higher gravity of a biggerer earth.

So it's the asteroids fault if you have smallerer muscles.

It was an asteroid the size of Mars, or so I've heard.

[Coito ergo sum]

Biologically speaking-- it seems like a useless piece of junk, really. I mean, life doesn't actually need a moonlight, right?

Disclaimer: I don't mean to underestimate its poetical beauty, but from practical PoV...

If it wasn't for the moon, humans most likely would not be here. The moon stabilizes the Earth somewhat, and without it there would have been violent and repeated changes in climate.

If the moon had never been there, our day would be about 8 hours long (the moon has helped slow down the Earth). Tides would have been much lower, since the only tidal forces would have been from the sun. A faster rotation means faster winds (figure common winds at 100 miles per hour - hurricane-like), and storm winds would be much faster and much more common.

Since the moon was formed much closer to the Earth - about 10-15 times closer than it is now - and has since been moving away - we know that when the moon first formed the tides were tremendous - like 1,000 times higher than they are now - and very frequent. This constant churning caused the oceans to fill up with compounds necessary for life much faster than would occur in a moonless Earth.

It's seems reasonable to conclude that it would have taken a lot longer for life to begin on Earth because of not having a moon. If life formed, then evolution would have been quite different, with a much shorter day and only 3-4 hours of sunlight per day and the massively high winds. It may be more difficult for complex life to form, and if it did it would likely have radically different biology.

[devogue]

The Moon is definitely necessary for life, for a number of very good reasons:

1) It lights up dark country roads at night so that when drunk people walk home from the pub they don't fall down ditches and die. Drunk people have more sex than sober people and they don't bother with contraception. Bada bing, as they say at Caltech.

2) The Moon enables werewolves to do their shit, culling the really stupid bastards that don't "keep to the path" and ensuring that the gene pool stays strong and healthy.

3) At night time "Moon Rain" falls from the Moon - it's made of Cambazola and it lands all over the countryside. It gets eaten by loony-chompers, the lowest form of molecular life - they in turn shit out lumps of "fotosinthesis" which are nom-nommed by hungry grass, and so on up the food chain.

4) The moon's spinning around the Earth is like a giant ball going round and round. This huge ball distracts our huge cats, the lions, and it stops them from taking over and eating us all.

[Elessarina]

Bravo Elessarina

I wanted to do the same, but the pancakebunny reflex failed me.

[RuleBritannia]

The moon was originally a part of earth and was knocked away by a big asteroid

And heres a nifty lil' animation showing it


But its only a hypothesis

Wait. The asteroid was bigger than the Moon? That means the impact increased the size of the Earth.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Wait. The asteroid was bigger than the Moon? That means the impact increased the size of the Earth.

No, the original Earth was smaller than the present version.

[rachelbean]

The Moon is definitely necessary for life, for a number of very good reasons:

1) It lights up dark country roads at night so that when drunk people walk home from the pub they don't fall down ditches and die. Drunk people have more sex than sober people and they don't bother with contraception. Bada bing, as they say at Caltech.

2) The Moon enables werewolves to do their shit, culling the really stupid bastards that don't "keep to the path" and ensuring that the gene pool stays strong and healthy.

3) At night time "Moon Rain" falls from the Moon - it's made of Cambazola and it lands all over the countryside. It gets eaten by loony-chompers, the lowest form of molecular life - they in turn shit out lumps of "fotosinthesis" which are nom-nommed by hungry grass, and so on up the food chain.

4) The moon's spinning around the Earth is like a giant ball going round and round. This huge ball distracts our huge cats, the lions, and it stops them from taking over and eating us all.

[devogue]

The moon was originally a part of earth and was knocked away by a big asteroid

And heres a nifty lil' animation showing it


But its only a hypothesis

Wait. The asteroid was bigger than the Moon? That means the impact increased the size of the Earth.

I like the way it "takes a run at it".

[RuleBritannia]

Wait. The asteroid was bigger than the Moon? That means the impact increased the size of the Earth.

No, the original Earth was smaller than the present version.

How's that different from what I said?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Wait. The asteroid was bigger than the Moon? That means the impact increased the size of the Earth.

No, the original Earth was smaller than the present version.

How's that different from what I said?

Just clarifying that A + B = C + D where A is the pre-impact Earth and B is the collider, and C is the post-impact Earth and D is the Moon.

[Pensioner]

Bollocks

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Bollocks

It must have been quite a sight, hey Pen? *jealous*