..although the Moon might not be responsible for life, it certainly has made life evolve faster.Scientists think life probably started in the oceans, although nobodys sure exactly where or how.......
A glancing blow from a Mars sized chunk of rock with proto-Earth created the moon. This impact blew off much of the crust of Earth and also merged the two objects' cores together.
What does this mean for life? Two things:
1. Thinner crust allowed for plate tectonics - which allows for the carbon cycle which was necessary for early cell sized life forms.
2. Larger core produces a stronger and larger magnetic field - protecting the organic lifeforms from harmful high energy particles given off by the sun.
I appreciate channels like National Geographic that produce scientific programming, but sometimes I think they play fast and loose with their facts in order to say something sensational like "life wouldn't exist without our Moon".
Here's what we DO know...although the Moon might not be responsible for life, it certainly has made life evolve faster.
Scientists think life probably started in the oceans, although nobody's sure exactly where or how. If life formed near shorelines, then the rise and fall of the tides would certainly have influenced the process. If life started in the deepest parts of the ocean, near hydrothermal vents, then the tides wouldn't have been as important. Even so, the tides almost certainly played a role in moving live from the oceans onto land, and the tides guide migration patterns that may promote speciation (the evolution of new species). So...is it accurate to say that without the Moon, life wouldn't exist on Earth? We really don't know that for sure. It's possible that life would have found a way even in the absence of a large nearby Moon, but it certainly would have been more difficult (and it was already hard enough!)
Now...Mars has two moons, but they're dinky, and they certainly haven't had any major influence on Martian tides (even when Mars did have lots of surface water). That doesn't mean life never existed on Mars, it just means that if it did, it had to get along without help from tides. We don't know for sure.
I hope that helps. Good luck!
