Updated

Updated · The Star Online · Jul 24

NASA Says Losing Moon Could Destabilize Earth's 23.5-Degree Axis as Tides Weaken Sharply

Updated

Updated · The Star Online · Jul 24

NASA Says Losing Moon Could Destabilize Earth's 23.5-Degree Axis as Tides Weaken Sharply

Q: If the Moon vanished tonight, which would change first on Earth—tides, wildlife, or climate?

Tides would change first, essentially immediately. If the Moon vanished tonight, Earth’s oceans would respond at once because the Moon is the main driver of tides. Solar gravity would still produce tides, but they would be much weaker—about half as strong as the current combined effect, according to NASA-linked explanations in the report. That would quickly alter coastal water levels, tidal wetlands, estuaries and shallow-sea mixing. Wildlife would likely be the next to feel the change, also on very short timescales. The loss of moonlight would make nights much darker right away, and many nocturnal species use lunar light and lunar cycles to navigate, hunt, feed and reproduce. Birds, amphibians, sea turtles, zooplankton and other animals could show behavioral changes almost immediately, even if wider ecosystem disruption took longer to unfold. Climate would change more slowly. Some ocean circulation patterns could begin shifting as weaker tides reduce mixing and heat transport, but the most dramatic climate effects tied to the Moon involve Earth’s axial stability, and those would develop over very long periods. Scientists say that without the Moon’s stabilizing pull, Earth’s tilt could wander more over thousands to millions of years, potentially producing stronger seasons in some eras, weaker ones in others, and larger climate swings overall. So on the timescale of “tonight,” tides change first, wildlife reacts soon after, and climate is the long game.

2 articles · Updated · The Star Online · Jul 24

384,400 kilometers from Earth, the moon acts as a stabilizer whose sudden loss would quickly darken nights and drastically reduce tides, NASA said in a scientific explainer for International Moon Day.
23.5 degrees of axial tilt could become far less stable without the moon's gravitational pull, raising the risk of weak seasons in one scenario and harsher summers, winters or even ice ages in another.
Tides would not vanish because the Sun also pulls on Earth's oceans, but its effect is only about half as strong as the moon's, leaving coastal habitats and heat-moving ocean currents fundamentally altered.
24-hour days would initially stay the same because removing the moon would end its braking effect without speeding Earth back up, though the Sun could still slow rotation over billions of years.
Nocturnal species that navigate, hunt or reproduce by moonlight would face immediate disruption, showing how deeply the moon shapes ecosystems as well as planetary mechanics.