Life and the Moon How important is the moon to the origin of life here on Earth? For a long time it
Life and the MoonHow important is the moon to the origin of life here on Earth? For a long time it was assumed that without a large moon like ours, life wouldn’t have formed. Mars, and the other terrestrial planets in the solar system, were examples - all of which lack large moons. It was argued that, like Mars, Earth’s orbit wouldn’t have stabilized enough to support life. It seemed that this theory was backed up in 1993, when the French physicist Jacques Laskar published a report with data from a computer simulation that indicated the axis of Earth wouldn’t have stabilized without a large moon. This meant that the chances of finding life elsewhere in the universe were slim, as very few planets in the habitable zone around a star are likely to have large moons.But in 2011 Jack Lissaur from NASA’s Ames Research Center, Jason Barnes from the University of Idaho, and John Chambers from the Carnegie Institute of Science used a much larger amount of computing power to test different planetary systems. Their research concluded that not only was a large moon unnecessary for a planet to produce life, in many cases it would be severely detrimental.They first discovered that without the moon, the Earth’s tilt probably would have only wobbled 10 more degrees than it currently does. Compared to Mars’ possible 45 degree swing, this is nothing. In addition, if a planet the size of Earth spun a little more quickly around it’s axis, maybe having a 10 hour day instead of a 24 hour day, or even spun retrograde (where the sun rises in the west and sets in the east), then the axis would have stabilized even further due to gravitational resonances from other planets, particularly Jupiter.Some scientists have pointed out that without the tides from the moon, life might have had a tougher time getting started. But, while the moon does give Earth some hefty pull as far as tides are concerned, the sun also produces them, which could have easily set up the conditions for life.So it seems that the moon, while important to poets and star-crossed lovers, might not be as important to the creation of life here on Earth as we once thought.Further reading: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103511004064For further reading on moon origins, please visit: http://on.fb.me/1A6OQOTPicture Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center-Colter -- source link
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