Posted on 12/25/2015 12:03:24 PM PST by SunkenCiv
In 1993, French astronomer Jacques Laskar ran a series of calculations indicating that the gravity of the Moon is vital to stabilizing the tilt of our planet. Earth's obliquity, as this tilt is technically known as, has huge repercussions for climate. Laskar argued that should Earth's obliquity wander over hundreds of thousands of years, it would cause environmental chaos by creating a climate too variable for complex life to develop in relative peace.
So his argument goes, we should feel remarkably lucky to have such a large moon on our doorstep, as no other terrestrial planet in our solar system has such a moon. Mars' two satellites, Phobos and Deimos, are tiny, captured asteroids that have little known effect on the Red Planet. Consequently, Mars' tilt wobbles chaotically over timescales of millions of years, with evidence for swings in its rotational axis at least as large as 45 degrees.
The stroke of good fortune that led to Earth possessing an unlikely Moon, specifically the collision 4.5 billion years ago between Earth and a Mars-sized proto-planet that produced the debris from which our Moon formed, has become one of the central tenets of the 'Rare Earth' hypothesis. Famously promoted by Peter Ward and Don Brownlee, it argues that planets where everything is just right for complex life are exceedingly rare.
(Excerpt) Read more at astrobio.net ...
The effects of changing obliquity on Mars' climate. Mars' current 25-degree tilt is seen at top left. At top right is a Mars that has a high obliquity, leading to ice gather at its equator while the poles point sunwards. At bottom is Mars with low obliquity, which sees its polar caps grow in size. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
...is the handiwork of God.
Well I, for one, have as much faith in these models as I do the AGW flim flam models. Moons matter!
Sure the moon stabilizes the earth and creates tides but that doesn’t mean either are necessary for life.
The three body problem.
I know, let’s blow up the moon and see what happens.
Earth's rotation has not always been as leisurely as the current 24 hour spin-rate. Following the impact that formed the Moon, Earth was spinning once every four or five hours, but it has since gradually slowed by the Moon's presence. As for the length of Earth's day prior to the Moon-forming impact, nobody really knows, but some models of the impact developed by Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute, in Boulder, Colorado, suggest that Earth could have been rotating fast, or even retrograde, prior to the collision.It's always a rough time when a hard-core impact catastrophist has to point out that there never was an impact to a proto-Earth that caused the Moon to form.
Additionally, the Moon isn’t necessary for the tides (and therefore tidepools), as the Sun currently produces one-third of the Earth’s tides.
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Fact: Leftists are not critical to life.
Working in law enforcement or emergency medicine would certainly be a lot less exciting if there was no Full Moon - EVER!
No moon...no surfing industry.
Try to imagine how awful it must be for minorities to look up and see a white moon. It’s racist, that’s what it is.
Rings would be nice. Perhaps we could trade in the moon for rings.
Uh-oh, that means no Beach Boys.
Apart from perhaps enabling complex life, what has it given us? Most notably the moon god nutjobs of the middle east, that’s what! That surely hasn’t been very advantageous for complex life on earth. Add that to the list of points this new theory makes saying we don’t need it.
And women -- it's always, Man in the Moon this and Man in the Moon that. And those effin' Apollo astronauts, drove three full days each way without stopping every half hour to ask for directions, or to go to the bathroom.
Hah. Good thing they went at night, that's all I've got to say.
A visit from Saturn: What if Saturn flew past the Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY2jv4GWUhQ
Yes, we have a racist moon. I am sure some libtard out there is trying to figure out how he can get legislation started to ban the moon. How traumatic for millions, that we have such a racist moon.
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