There are many moons in the solar system, but none like ours, it exerts an extraordinary influence on Planet Earth, keeping our world in balance. But why is it so powerful? I want to explore the relationship we have with our closest neighbour, to see how the Moon has sculpted our planet and shaped our evolution. Without the Moon, would we even be here? So, the top 5 things we’d miss if we didn’t have a Moon:

1 Eclipses on Earth We will miss it at all





From our perspective, the Sun and the Moon look almost exactly the same size. Actually, the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun but it is also 400 times closer. Moon and the Sun appear to be the same size, this is why we can have solar eclipses, where the Moon passes in front of the Sun, just barely obscuring it from our view, that’s gives us the most mesmerising sight, a total eclipse. Because the Moon’s disc is the same size as the Sun’s, they line up perfectly, with just a halo of solar gases spilling out around the rim. I always thought there must be some astronomical reason for this, something in the physics which means it must be this way buts no, it’s just a cosmic coincidence, it happens because right now, the Moon is just the right distance from Earth. So, without our Moon — just a few hundred thousand miles (or kilometers) away — there’d be no object that would pass through the Earth’s shadow; there’d be no lunar eclipses, we’ll lose the magic of the total eclipse



