GAM 2018 Blog
- Published: Monday, April 23 2018 09:00
By Shaila Akhter
Credit: 'Moon silhouettes' by Mark Gee
The beauty of the Moon helps us to pass beautiful time on Earth, gave many poets and writers words for their creation, even from documentary to sci-fi, we have many movies on the Moon. Moon is the symbol of love as well, this is why we use the word “Honeymoon”! Shining like a beacon in its full size or just as a silver lining in a crescent form, the Moon is always there in our night sky. But, what would happen if there were no Moon for our very own planet, Earth?
• No Moon means no solar or lunar eclipses. There would be nothing to block the sunlight to our planet.
• Moon is the brightest object in the night sky. Without the Moon, the nights will be much darker. The next brightest object in the sky is the Venus, but that is not enough to light up the sky. If we compare, a full moon is 2000 times brighter than the Venus is.
• Tidal hides would change into about one-third of what they are now!
• Even a month relates to the motion of the Moon. So our calendars would be very different.
• The mass and the gravity of the Moon is helping to slow down our Earth's rotation. So, with no Moon, the Sun will take over and the Earth will spin faster, completing a day with only 6 to 7 hours, making a year with more than a 1000 days! This will lead to many unfavorable consequences. The wind and storms will increase much affecting the evolution of life on our planet making unpredictable development and loss of the plants and animals.
• Constituting around one-eightieth of the Earth-Moon mass system, the Moon stabilizes the Earth’s 23-degree tilt. This keeps our seasons and environments mild and suitable for our living. Without the Moon, the Earth begins to wobble more and more and tilting from almost zero degrees to more than 90 degrees. This wild and unstable fluctuating orbit of the Earth around the Sun will result in seeing the Sun for only a few minutes to years of continuous sunlight, followed by years of continuous darkness.
So, obviously without the Moon, the beauty of literature would be dimmed massively, there will be no twilight and even no movie to make based on this, where a man would turn into a werewolf, such as in the movie “Twilight”. But more importantly, the unfavorable seasons and environments would make almost all the living beings on Earth invisible. The Earth might contain some other lives for which these extreme conditions are favorable. So, next time you see the Moon in our night sky, remember to smile at it and admire the importance of it with our existence on this beautiful planet!
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Shaila Akhter was born and grew up in Bangladesh. When she was a child, her father used to take her in his lap and every night he used to show her the night sky with lots of beautiful stars! Ever since she has always dreamt to be an Astrophysicist! After completing her honours and Masters in Applied Physics, Electronics and Communication Engineering from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, she pursued a Master of Engineering and an MPhil in Astrophysics from the Australian National University (ANU). Recently, Shaila completed her PhD in Astrophysics from the UNSW in collaboration with CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science in Australia and Astronomy department at the University of Sao Paulo, Brasil. Her research addressed how massive stars, that are eight to twenty times the mass of the sun, form in molecular clouds and their relationship with the Milky Way Galactic structure. |
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Beyond her research, she has been heavily involved in public outreach internationally. She was a monthly podcaster at the 365 days of Astronomy, CosmoQuest. She was a tutor and physics lab demonstrator for undergraduates and is a teaching assistant for Astronomy online courses at UNSW. She is now involved with PriyoAustralia.com.au online news daily as an Editor for Science section.
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