What If the Moon Disappeared?

Imagine that one night, the Moon was simply gone. What would actually change? More than you might think. Darker nights, coral reefs that lose their calendar, smaller tides, a wobblier planet and no more total solar eclipses. Then we travel back 4.5 billion years to see how the Moon was born. Chapters 0:00 What if the Moon disappeared? 0:15 Darker nights (and lost corals) 0:43 Smaller tides 1:05 A wobbling Earth 1:29 No more eclipses 1:44 How the Moon was born 2:04 The Moon is leaving 2:19 Part of what makes Earth home Sources & further reading • Tides and the Sun's vs. Moon's pull (NOAA): https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/educati... • Coral spawning and moonlight (eLife): https://elifesciences.org/articles/09991 • Obliquity of a moonless Earth (Carnegie Science): https://carnegiescience.edu/obliquity... • Giant-impact hypothesis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-i... Previous episode: You Are Made of Stardust. Here's How.    • You Are Made of Stardust. Here's How.   Tiny Big Picture: big ideas, explained tiny.