We all know what the moon is. It's that big rock in the sky that orbits around earth. But what does the moon do for Earth? And what would happen if we had no moon? You know how when you go to the beach, the water is at different levels at different times of the day? And how the moon orbits Earth (or does it really)? Well these are both affected by the moon.
If we didn't have the moon, there wouldn't really be any tides (well technically there would still be tides, but those are caused by the sun, and since the sun is further away, they are much less drastic). As far as the moon orbiting Earth, it doesn't technically orbit Earth. The earth and the moon both orbit a point between them, which is just inside of earth if you were to look at a diagram, called the barycenter. So if you took the moon away, Earth's orbit would change drastically. Earth's seasons also depend on the moon. As I mentioned above, the moon affects Earth's orbit, and as was mentioned in a previous post, Earth's orbit around the sun affects the seasons. So as you can see, if you took away the moon, not only obvious things like the tides and seeing the moon in the sky at night would change, but many less obvious things would change as well, such as our seasons.
This could affect life on earth, because if our orbit is thrown off, there is a chance we could move out of the habitable zone. This would result in severe climate change, and mass extinction, after which life may never reform. If Earth's tides are drastically changes, many water dwelling species activities may be affected, and many organisms depend on them for food. This would also eventually result in mass extinction.
So let's be glad we have the moon.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u3nKf1aheWKK2D7YMIroWhBKEs6GzOLDCU17hqbe2a8/edit?usp=sharing
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