What if the Moon Disappeared Tomorrow?

The moon holds Earth’s 23.5-degree tilt steady. Without the moon, Earth would wobble, dramatically affecting our planet’s seasons and climate.

By Mara Johnson-Groh
Nov 25, 2019 10:00 PMNov 25, 2019 10:22 PM
full moon from space
Astronauts on the International Space Station caught the full moon rising over the Atlantic Ocean in this August 2016 image. (Credit: NASA)

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The closest object to our planet, the moon, may seem like Earth’s little sibling. Since its birth, the satellite has mostly just hung around, playing gravitational tug-of-war. But what would happen if the moon vanished tomorrow?

“Three billion years ago, when the moon was closer to Earth, a lot of things would have changed pretty dramatically,” says Matthew Siegler, lunar research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Dallas, Texas. “Right now, the moon is far enough away that most of the things it does for us are very long term, like stabilizing our orbit over hundreds of thousands of years.”

Moon Waves Goodbye

If we all woke up one morning to find the moon missing, most of us probably wouldn’t notice.

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