Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum and this this is a
Speaker 1: classic episode from former host Christian Sager. This one is
Speaker 1: more of a thought experiment than practical science. Let's say
Speaker 1: the Moon disappeared, not blew up or gradually drifted away,
Speaker 1: just one day, vamped right out of existence. What would
Speaker 1: happen here on Earth? Oh? Hey, there, brain Stuff, it's
Speaker 1: Christian Sager, and it is time you and I had
Speaker 1: to talk about the Moon. I know we haven't been
Speaker 1: there in a while, but it is pretty rad. I mean,
Speaker 1: we think that about four point five billion years ago,
Speaker 1: something the size of Mars crashed into Earth and ricocheted
Speaker 1: into space to form the Moon. It even took some
Speaker 1: of Earth's mantle with it, So there's ancient chunks of
Speaker 1: our planet merged with space stuff up there just hanging
Speaker 1: out in orbit. But even with all at I'm not
Speaker 1: sure the Moon gets all the credit it deserves. If
Speaker 1: it wasn't there, things would be a lot different here
Speaker 1: on our little blue planet. First, we'd see some pretty
Speaker 1: dramatic changes to the ocean. The Moon is responsible for
Speaker 1: most of the effects of tides. Without it, the tides
Speaker 1: would only be a third of the size that they
Speaker 1: are now. This is because the Sun would account for
Speaker 1: the major gravitational pull affecting the altitude of the ocean.
Speaker 1: And while the Sun is way bigger than the Moon,
Speaker 1: like like four times bigger, it is also much further away,
Speaker 1: so the tides it creates only have about of the
Speaker 1: strength of our current lunar tides. Surfing wouldn't be the
Speaker 1: only thing that suffered. Lots of ecosystems rely on the
Speaker 1: motion and changes of the tides to sustain them. Plus,
Speaker 1: the Moon holds a bulge of tidal water around Earth's
Speaker 1: middle that would disperse without its gravity, changing coastlines around
Speaker 1: the world. Also, did you know that the Moon helps
Speaker 1: slow down the rotation of Earth yep. Without it, we
Speaker 1: wouldn't have twenty four hour days. They'd be more like
Speaker 1: six to eight hours long. We'd have to remake our
Speaker 1: calendar to accommodate between eleven hundred and four hundred days
Speaker 1: per year. Not only would that screw up all of
Speaker 1: our schedules, but a faster rotation would also increase the
Speaker 1: amount of wind and storms on our planet. If that's
Speaker 1: not extreme climate change enough for you, No Moon would
Speaker 1: also destabilize the Earth's access, unpredictably, changing our tilt with
Speaker 1: side effects that would render the planet inhospitable to lots
Speaker 1: of its creatures. Right now, we're tilted at a lovely
Speaker 1: twenty three degrees, which gives us relatively mild seasons and environments,
Speaker 1: but the Moon acts as an external force that stabilizes
Speaker 1: that angle. Without it, we could wobble anywhere between zero
Speaker 1: degrees with no seasons and barely any sunlight to eighty
Speaker 1: five degrees, where the planet would fall over on its
Speaker 1: side kitten on a cat nip pie. Mars, for example,
Speaker 1: wobbles only fifteen and thirty five degrees, and it experiences
Speaker 1: drastic climate changes where ice drifts all the way from
Speaker 1: its poles to its equator. Finally, Gang, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've noticed, but the moon's pretty darn bright up
Speaker 1: there in the middle of the night. Sure, the sun
Speaker 1: is four hundred thousand times brighter, but sometimes it's still
Speaker 1: hits your eye, you know, like like like a big
Speaker 1: pizza pie, which means that without it, our nights would
Speaker 1: be a lot darker than we're used to. Try stumbling
Speaker 1: around in the woods without a moon and see how
Speaker 1: you like it. Today's episode was written by Christian and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio's Has Stuff Works. For more on that and
Speaker 1: lots of other topics that will hit your eye, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet how Stuff Works dot com. Plus for
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