Formation

The moon used to be a mars-sized asteroid which incidentally collided with the Earth 4-4.5 billion years ago. Most of the mars-sized asteroid’s debris joined the Earth through gravity. The leftover debris was charged into orbit with the Earth in a disk-like formation. Part of the Earth’s mantle was also launched into orbit because of the collision. This whole process increased the Earth’s mass dramatically. Over a long period of time, the debris that were orbiting the Earth, started to hit each other and clump together. This turned out to be our moon in the end that orbits us nowadays, although practically the same size it used to be much closer to the Earth.

Uses of the Moon

             The moon happens to cause tides in the Earth by gravity, which help us in transportation, energy, and prevent large bodies of water to freeze, like lakes, etc. Although, we would still get tides without the moon, since we still have the Sun, it would not be much. Only 12 hours a day would we get different tides in one place, but since we barely have a delay time for different tides, which is at Quarter Moons every month. Also, the Sun is only 46% effective in creating tides on Earth, compared to the moon. So the moon contributes in creating tides twice as much as the Sun.

 The Moon also helps us obtain light even when we are not facing the Sun (this means nighttime), by reflecting the light of the Sun back to Earth.

One important factor about the moon is that it locks our planet into a stable rotation, and position with the sun. Resulting in the equator always facing the Sun to give balance to the temperature on the Earth. Planets that don’t have large moons, rotate without stability. Where sometimes, the poles face the Sun and the equators do not. If that happens, the planet spin on the axis, of which the top is at the closest point to the Sun. That point will reach extreme high temperatures, since it constantly faces the Sun, whereas the opposite pole will be extremely cold half of the year. These extremes will exterminate all complex life on the planet. Due to drag between the Sun and the Earth, our moon is moving far from us, although slowly but surely. After we lose our moon, the Earth will not remain its stable position, sooner or later it will tip and all complex life will die. Life would still be possible, when the Earth returns back to it original position, life will start afresh. Although it is noted that since it will not have its stability, the Earth will wobble too, destroying life again and life will start anew every time, in a cycle.