HOW IMPORTANT IS OUR MOON?

                              From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9    1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30      3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14       4142     15512        1151        189      712              

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar     2        1989      9490        1726       110      194

April   6          906     11787         4211       631       37

May    4         853     13667         3025     3786      59 

June   1         287    10637         2346      3205       95

 July   7          251      8440        1595        817      411

Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532     423 

Sept   1        1480    10470          703        505      235

          8        1700      9836          250        339     253

        14        1934      9001          709        281      300

        22       2228      9326          839        279      124

        29        2190      8859         643        309      108

Oct    5        1811       7495          686        285     103

          6        2102       8255         543        315       59

        12        1819       7544         201        249        37 

        19        2005      7528         401        160        80 

        26        1451       7535         409        584       53

        27       1594       8671         433        734        62 

Nov   3        1436       7830        186        458        23

        10        1493      8366         264        362        48

        17        1416       8440         374        470         11

        24        1594      8270         176        396        22

        25         306      7154          281        488       114

Dec    1        1633      8475         266        477        28 

          8        1324       7894         231        159        36

Summary:  The pandemic continues.  One partially noteworthy figure is the relatively low new deaths for South Africa, although new cases are now getting close to 20,000, stimulated by the Omicron variant.

How important is our Moon?  For some, it spurs romance.  For others, like animals, the light provides an opportunity to hunt.  Most important of all, there are theories, and one in 2004 indicates, no Moon, then no life on Earth.

• The common belief is that five billion years ago a giant asteroid impact blasted debris into space, which over time solidified into a ball called the Moon.

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  A billion years later when life is thought to have arisen, the Moon was still much closer to us, causing tidal cycles every 2-6 hours and changing the salinity of the sea.  These fluctuations seem similar to how and why the double-stranded DNA molecule formed.
• Complementary thinking suggests that the moons of Mars did not generate high tidal forces so life probably did not form on that planet. 
• On a size-relative basis, our moon is the largest compared to the planet it orbits.  Jupiter's Ganymede, Io and Callisto, plus Saturn's Titan, are larger, but proportionally far smaller.

In 2009 the theory somewhat shifted:

• It all started 4.5 billion years ago when nascent Earth was struck by a Mars-size planetary embryo, increasing the spin rate to 12 hours/day.
• The molten mantle quickly coalesced into our moon.
• The moon induced lunar tides.
• While some speculate that life originated around deep ocean hydrothermal vents, it's also possible that the origin was in tidal waters.
• A lot of life-origin reactions necessitates getting rid of water, so if these tides threw these proteins unto a hot rock and recede, evaporation would occur.  This could have been essential to eventually lead to nucleic acids.
• Life thus emerged around 3.8 billion years ago.
• Deimos and Phobos are too puny to similarly affect Mars.
• Jupiter has Europa causing this cyclic action, leading to that planet being a hot candidate for life.

In 2015 the thinking further evolved:

• Almost 4.5 billion years ago our moon was only 16,000 miles away (it is now 238.900 miles).  Looking from Earth, the moon looked perhaps 15 times larger.
• Of course nobody did because our planet was still a molten ball of magma.
• The pull of gravity because of the moon caused plate tectonics and stabilized our planet's rotation on it's axis.
• Some scientists think life first formed around 3.8 billion years ago after the ocean was created, probably at the coastline.
• After life formed, the moon played a role in nurturing life.
• You would think lions would better hunt at full moon.
• However lion attacks on humans happen 10 days after the full moon.  Maybe light protects potential victims.
• Bats are less active during the full moon.
• In any case, all that led to humans evolving.

Now that the moon is showing more and more importance for our existence, what would happen if it just left:

• Contrary to the above, this paper said it would become too dark for many nocturnal in the search for food.  Thus they would become extinct.
• Plant biochemistry would be affected, and there would be extinctions here.
• Over time the Earth would begin to wobble around our axis and drastically change our weather. We should be able to still exist, but life would become a challenge.
• Our orbit around the sun is almost circular.  That of other planets are elliptical.  Thus, if we become like the others, then life would be influenced.  All that of course would take millions of years.
• There would be smaller tides (the sun also has an influence), leading to a variety of problems that could kill of marine life.
• The absence of the moon will mean that more asteroids and comets would strike us.  Its not the physical presence of the moon but the gravitational pull.  Did you know that the side of the moon that faces away from us has a lot more craters?

But will our Moon ever leave Earth?  This could occur through impact with a large asteroid.  However, from a natural point of view, no:

Laser ranging measurements of the change in the distance from the Earth to the Moon tell us that the Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of about 3.78 cm per year.  Calculations of the evolution of the Earth/Moon system tell us that with this rate of separation that in about 15 billion years the Moon will stop moving away from the Earth.  Now, our Sun is expected to enter its Red Giant phase in about 6 to 7 billion years.  So, the answer to your first question is that the Sun will engulf the inner planets as its outer layers expand during its Red Giant phase before the Moon will stop moving away from the Earth.

No question that our moon is important.  Early analysis indicates that in this Goldilocks Zone of our location, we are unusual, for those extrasolar planets occupying this region around other stars seem not to have our kind of moon.

Fascinating video of our Arctic Moon:

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