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BeepBlipBlapBloop t1_j7urswd wrote

I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for here. The moons just exist because of the physical realities of gravitational influence.

There's no reason for it beyond that.

Earth isn't livable because of the moon. The moon just helps. It doesn't mean that any planet with a moon can support life.

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OnlyMortal666 t1_j7v9nlj wrote

I’d offer that our Moon had been critical in our evolution and, importantly, biology.

Tides mix up the hydrocarbons.

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justa33 t1_j7vfxpr wrote

you mix up the hydrocarbons ! !

i don’t know why i felt compelled to say that

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OnlyMortal666 t1_j7vg2uq wrote

stirs faster

Damn hydrocarbons won’t stay in the soap bubbles!

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GaudExMachina t1_j7vgise wrote

Id point out that the event that formed our moon would erase out existence. So let's just hope we don't get 12 more.

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nsfwtttt t1_j7vlpg0 wrote

Yeah which means we evolved to fit the moon, the moon wasn’t created for our benefit.

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Revolutionary_Lock86 t1_j7vc5rs wrote

Yeah but there is no thought process or plan… it sounds like you guys are arguing why the solar system decided to get many moons. Cause and effect… that’s it. The universe is incredibly simple.

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slickhedstrong t1_j7vf3la wrote

the why doesn't need a cognitive or narrative motivation here.

why are volcanoes important to hawaii? because without them there'd be no hawaii. a fortunate random circumstance.

likewise, jupiter flexing the orbit of so many roaming bodies means we are offered a mild protection from more potentially dangerous objects flying around.

that's why jupiter's tendency to pull moons is important to earth. even if the why is ambient.

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OnlyMortal666 t1_j7vfr45 wrote

What do you mean thought process or plan? There isn’t a deity.

Of note is that we’re obviously under the right conditions that an ape can look up at the sky and wonder. That’s random but we seemingly won the lottery.

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magnitudearhole t1_j7vkm22 wrote

Tide zone is a crucial evolutionary niche for sea creatures to become land adapted too

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funkysquigger t1_j7v1jhv wrote

The moon also does not offer much protection against asteroid impacts to earth, which is what I thought they were going for.

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Senrakdaemon t1_j7v7atn wrote

Really? I thought I read somewhere in grade school it helps, maybe it was jupiter

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DeafnotDeath t1_j7v9xhk wrote

Yes, it’s Jupiter. Earth would probably be uninhabitable if not for Jupiter sucking up enormous amounts of asteroids away from us

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floatingsaltmine t1_j7vfm3c wrote

That theory has been debunked. Jupiter hurls as many asteroid into the inner solar system as it pulls them in to crash into Jupiter or flings them out of the solar system entirely. It's a zero sum game for Earth.

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blaster151 t1_j7vr0cb wrote

Is there a source for this debunking?

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floatingsaltmine t1_j7w0s4d wrote

https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/does-jupiter-really-protect-us-from-cosmic-impacts/

Granted it's not the most sophisticated article and it seems to be behind a paywall. I learned about it in a Crash Course Astronomy episode about the Jovian Moons on Youtube.

This article here found that there would have been significantly fewer impacts on Earth without a Jupiter-mass planet, but several times more if Jupiter had the mass of Saturn. It also depends on the class of bodies (asteroids, short-period comets, long-period comets): https://spaceaustralia.com/feature/jupiters-complicated-relationship-life-earth

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Carp8DM t1_j7vanqi wrote

You're not wrong.

While Jupiter keeps the asteroid belt in check, the moon keeps many asteroids that would normally hit us from missing just barely.

In fact, just last month we had a near earth orbit of a pretty large asteriod. The moon's orbit and gravitational pull ensured the asteriod didn't come strait at us.

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[deleted] OP t1_j7vi10d wrote

[deleted]

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Carp8DM t1_j7vizxa wrote

I mean, apparently not?

Think about it... all the shit that was gonna hit the Earth... Kinda already has.

More profoundly...

Most of the shit that was about to hit the Earth, got pulled into the moon. Look at all them craters.

So what's left? A bunch of shit. But a bunch of shit that isn't gonna hit either of us. It's almost like delayed gratification, if you think about it.

The Earth/Moon busted eachother up. Then they both got busted up for millions of years.... Untill eventually there was nothing left...

And here we are.

The calm result of a chaotic evolution of astrological impacts.

It's kinda beautiful, if you think about it.

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quantumtwit t1_j7vowt8 wrote

> Most of the shit that was about to hit the Earth, got pulled into the moon. Look at all them craters.

The earth has been hit by far more "shit" than the moon on account it being much bigger than the moon. We just don't see most of them due to earth having tectonic plates floating on liquid magma and the surface being constantly subsumed into it plus geological forces constantly eroding the surface.

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[deleted] OP t1_j7vktzc wrote

[deleted]

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Carp8DM t1_j7vll11 wrote

> I’d love to see a simulation of a million random trajectories and see a breakdown of results.

Uh... You are on the internet... figure it out.

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Maverick_1882 t1_j7vfban wrote

I did see there was an article about the new moons of Jupiter, but didn’t read it. Do we name the moons? If so, who gets the task? Who keeps track of the names?

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Deep_BrownEyes t1_j7vjufc wrote

The moon definitely helps support live on earth. On other planets they can kind of absorb asteroids that would otherwise hit the planet. But there's no reason or importance to it, moons are just an inevitability of any object with sufficient gravity. Planets are basically just the suns moons

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