Welcome to Space Facts Saturday!
Today’s topic: What If Earth Had More Than One Moon?
When we think about the 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...
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potential to house life. Earth’s moon is still special; it’s the only one we have and humans have stepped on it!
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...
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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.
Other planets in our Solar System have multiple moons. What would it...
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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.
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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...
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each day there are two high tides and two low tides that take place in coastal areas. This is due to the Moon’s relative position to Earth. “As it changes, the two tidal bulges will rotate around the Earth. Therefore, the bulges will represent high tides and the...
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corresponding “flat sides” will represent low tides.” (NOAA)
According to Neil Commins, 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...
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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. This may lead to large extinction events.
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We have to keep in mind that this all depends on the moon’s relative position to Earth.
Our night sky would be illuminated with the light of all of these moons. There would be an increase in the amount of solar and lunar eclipses that we experience. This also means that we...
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would potentially experience fewer hours of darkness.
Nocturnal predators would have to adapt to the changes in darkness. They would have to develop new ways to hunt. Their prey would also become more intelligent, and most likely develop new camoflauge.
It would be...
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interesting to see what kinds of new and intelligent species of nocturnal animals would evolve on and Earth with more than one moon.
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Due to our tides being increasingly affected, this means that we as humans have to learn to adapt to having more than one moon as well. People that live in coastal areas would especially be affected. This is because the ocean is very important for trading and transport.
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The areas that people live in would change. We would not be able to live as closely to the ocean since the tides would be much larger.
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Another important thing that would change would be the way we measure time. 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.
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It’s also possible that these moons would move away from Earth and collide with each other at some point. Our current moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year. If these moons did collide, they could lead to another mass extinction event.
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Needless to say, having another moon (or possibly more) could lead to both positive and negative effects on Earth. It would be amazing to explore and study more moons if we had them. Even Mars has two moons, so it’s possible for us too.
However, I think I can safely say...
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I’m glad to have one moon. It’s THE Moon. OUR Moon.
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That’s the end of the thread! Hope you learned something! What did you think? Would you want more moons or not?
As always, you can leave suggestions for thread topics as well!

Be sure to check out the extended version of the thread on my blog! https://jaz21693.wixsite.com/mysite/post/what-if-earth-had-more-than-one-moon