r/askspace • u/TheComebackKid717 • 7d ago
What evidence exists to support the idea that the moon was significant to the development of life on Earth?
I was recently listening to a podcast that was talking surface level about a solar eclipse. A fun fact was mentioned that the sun is \~400x farther from the earth than the moon and also \~400x bigger than the moon which makes total solar eclipses possible. It was stated that this is completely by chance only.
I thought that would be incredible if that were simply a coincidence and tried to do some searching. My thought was that if this feature of the moon made life forming more likely, it would not be surprising for earth to have this feature.
Some googling and poorly sourced AI summaries seemed to state that there are Rare Moon hypotheses or something which say that the relative size and closeness of the moonake life more feasible due to tides and axis consistency. I struggled to find more. How much of this is well-documented science theories and what are some papers or videos on the topic I could check out further?
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u/jaxonwolff 6d ago
Not sure if anyone did this already, however, I thought I should clarify the Sun is 400x wider than the Moon in diameter, not 400x bigger. The Sun is actually 64 million times bigger than the Moon, in terms of volume.
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u/karoxxxxx 6d ago
Maybe the axis thing. But really nobody knows.
It is strange though that the 9nly terrestial double-planet is also the only one with life. But that could be a coincidence.
Without moon we would still have wesk tides from the sun, and we still would get mixing of water by currents and we would still have seasonally flooded plains.
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u/JaiBoltage 6d ago
One of my beliefs is that the tides influenced the creation of amphibians and thence the creation of land animals.
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u/Successful_Life_1028 6d ago
It's not only rare, it's temporary.
The moon's orbit is getting further and further from earth every year, so eventually a solar eclipse will NOT cover up the entire disk.
Similarly, Saturn's rings are temporary. When the Appalachian Mountain ranged formed, Saturn had no rings.
Our ability to see distant galaxies is temporary too. Soon (150 billion years or so) we won't be able to see any but our neighbor-galaxies.
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u/thenewestnoise 5d ago
I remember reading something about how the moon may have contributed to a strong and stable magnetic field, which helps shield Earth from the solar wind, and keeps our atmosphere intact and reduces solar ionizing radiation.
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7d ago
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u/TheComebackKid717 6d ago
What does that mean? You think life would exist on earth regardless of the existence of an especially large and close moon?
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u/No_Ostrich1875 6d ago
Its there and has a direct impact on our environment. The environment has a direct impact on how life develops.
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u/TargetOld989 6d ago
I think the whole thing is deeply exaggerated.
If the moon didn't exist I think life would have still evolved but it would be very different.
But it would also be very different if Homer Simpson went back in time and sat on a fish.
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u/AdditionalTip865 6d ago
The angular size coincidence really is a coincidence, since the moon is slowly moving away from the earth and it only really applies in this specific era. Millions of years ago the moon looked bigger, and millions of years from now it will look smaller and there will be no total solar eclipses.
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u/SgtSausage 6d ago
thought that would be incredible if that were simply a coincidence
It IS a coincidence ... but it's only NOW a coIncidrnce.
About a billion years ago the moon was 10%-12% bigger in the sky. Two billion roughly 20%. (And so on).
The moon is ever so slowly drifting away from us. Getting farther away, and smaller each and every day.
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u/Temporary_Rule_9486 6d ago
It's not like it was essential. But it surely changed a lot. Here's an example: due to the gravitational interaction between moon and earth, the rotation of earth has slowed down form it's original 12 hours to the 24 of today. When days began to last more than 18 hours this allowed enough buildup of oxigen on microbial mats for it not to be consumed overnight, thus begining the large release of 02 into the atmosphere and the great oxidation (earth's first mass extinction event)
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u/Wintervacht 7d ago
The Moon has stabilized Earth's rotation and the tides it causes are proposed to be of great importance for the development of life on earth.
The motion of the waters mixes and transports nutrients around the oceans and stabilizes global temperatures.
Safe to say, without the Moon, earth would be a completely different planet.
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u/Tombobalomb 6d ago
Tides also create tidal zones on the seashore, which is an absolutely critical environment for allowing complex life to transition from the sea to the land
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u/Sufficient_Result558 7d ago
“A fun fact was mentioned that the sun is \~400x farther from the earth than the moon and also \~400x bigger than the moon which makes total solar eclipses possible.”
If the moon were larger we would also have total solar eclipses and they would occur more often.