Re: Clockmaker

Conway Morris in "Life's Solution" has a section dedicated to this question.

If the moon was not formed from a large impact with the earth and a
subsequent loss of earth material to form the moon, including atmosphere,
Cameron and Benz wrote:

"We deal with a unique event. In the absence of the Giant Impact, it seems
plausible that the Earth would have developed with a massive atmosphere
comparable to that possesed by Venus." and therefore not compatible with
life.

From Conway Morris "One advantage of having a Moon is that it confers
considerable stability to the axis of rotation of the Earth" Which avoids
massive climactic changes with changes in obliquity.

As far as the effect on the rotational speed. Neil Comins suggests that if
the tidal friction between the earth and moon and not slowed the earths
rotation, the wind speeds on earth would be persistently higher (avg 200 km
/hr) with many more violent and protracted storms.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Debbie Mann" <deborahjmann@insightbb.com>
To: "Asa" <asa@lists.calvin.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2006 8:03 PM
Subject: Clockmaker

> What would happen if we didn't have a moon. I heard on Discovery that it
> stabilizes the orbit. And what would happen if the earth rotated at a
> different speed - other than changing the lengths of the days? Would it
> destabilize anything?
>
> Debbie Mann
> (765) 477-1776
>
Received on Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:14:19 -0500