When we're thinking about our Solar System, we usually think about the incredible diversity of moons within it. Usually Jupiter and Saturn's moons come to mind, since they have the potential to house life on them. Earth's moon is special, though. It's the only one we have and humans have stepped on it! That's crazy to think about. Sure, it might not have the activity that some other moons in our Solar System have, but it's still very helpful for Earth in terms of our tides and such.
There are several theories as to how Earth got its moon. However, the most widely accepted theory is that a giant impact occurred in Earth's past. This theory proposes that the Moon formed during an impact that took place between Earth and a Mars-sized body. After the impact took place, the debris coalesced in an orbit around the Earth and formed the Moon.
When we think of the other planets in our Solar System, they are all pretty much known for their multiple moons, which kind of makes me jealous since it would be so cool to look up in the sky and see multiple moons. That's the topic we're going to focus on today. What would it be like for Earth to have more than one moon? Would it cause more harm than good? Or would it be a cool site to see and bring more exploration opportunities for us? That's what we're going to explore.
The biggest question that arises from the possibility of us having more than one moon would be the impact on tides. The Moon is known to cause high and low tides due to its gravitational pull. It causes oceans to bulge outward in the direction of the pull. In fact, each day there are two high tides and two low tides that take place in coastal areas. This is due to the Moon's position relative to Earth."As it changes, the two tidal bulges will rotate around the Earth. Therefore, the bulges will represent high tides and the corresponding "flat sides" will represent low tides." (NOAA)
Now that we know how our singular moon works to create tides, let's imagine if we had two moons. The second moon's affect on Earth's tides would be dependent on its size and relative position to Earth and the Sun. According to Neil Comins, an astronomer and physics professor from the University of Maine claims that if another moon settled in an orbit halfway between the Moon and the Earth, its gravitational pull on Earth would be high enough to cause tides almost eight times higher than what we are currently used to. Tides of this magnitude would certainly have a large role in more destructive natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes. Another change that would take place is the tide cycle would change. Keep in mind that this would all take place if we added one extra moon. If Earth had more than two moons, then the effect would only be stronger and more devastating. However, we do have to keep in mind that this all depends on the moon's relative position to Earth. There could obviously be many scenarios where we have multiple moons and things seem pretty stable, since their position is not one that would affect the tides.
Things would certainly be chaotic for humans, but once the moons are all settled in their respective orbits, things would go back to business as usual again. Our night sky would be illuminated with the light of all of these moons. There would also be an increase in the amount of solar and lunar eclipses that we experience, so that's a win for the astronomy community. A downside to having multiple moons, (aside from the intense tides), would be us potentially experiencing fewer hours of darkness. This means that our sleep patterns would be affected.
In fact, there have actually been studies conducted on the topic of the Moon affecting people's sleep patterns. I'm not exactly sure how scientific these studies are, but apparently the phases of the moon can affect sleep, especially a full moon. That's not the focus of this post though.
In the previous study that I mentioned, our new moon would develop volcanic activity similar to Jupiter's moon Io. This volcanic activity would make the surface of this new moon (which Comins calls "Luna") smooth. Due to the increased activity of natural disasters from Luna, large extinction events would likely take place. However, once everything begins to settle down, there would be another chance for life to arise once Earth begins to get adjusted to Luna. Life on Earth with more than one moon would be very different however. Nocturnal creatures would have to adapt and evolve with fewer nights being fully dark. They would have to develop different styles of hunting their prey. Their prey would also develop different means of survival. It would be interesting to see what kinds of new and intelligent species of nocturnal animals would evolve on an Earth with more than one moon.
Due to our tides being increasingly affected, this means that we as humans would have to learn to adapt to having more than one moon as well. People that live in coastal areas would especially be affected. The ocean is very important for trading and transport. People in coastal areas would not be able to move away, since the ocean is crucial to their livelihoods. We would have to change the way that we use the ocean for travel and transport. The areas that people live in would change. We would not be able to live very close to the ocean since the tides would be much larger.
The way that we measure time would change as well. Our months would change due to having more than one moon. We would have to account for having more than one moon and thus our calendar would probably look much different.
Our current moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year. If Earth had more than one moon, the other moons would also move away from Earth as well. There is a possibility that the Moon and Luna (and any other moons) could collide. This collision would produce lots of debris and some of it would be sent through Earth's atmosphere, leading to another mass extinction event. Needless to say, having another moon (and possibly more) could lead to both positive and negative impacts on Earth. There's even another question as to if life could even arise on Earth if we didn't have the Moon. I'm not sure about the answer to that question, but it is clear that the Moon is important to us. I'm glad that Earth has at least one moon. It would be amazing to be able to explore and study more more moons if we had them, and it's something cool to think about. I mean... even Mars has two moons and it's smaller than Earth, so it wouldn't have been impossible for us to have more than one, but I think I can safely say I'm glad that we do have one. THE Moon. OUR Moon.
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