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Video explains what would happen if each planet replaced our moon and the results would be catastrophic

Home> Science

Published 13:02 20 Jun 2024 GMT+1

Video explains what would happen if each planet replaced our moon and the results would be catastrophic

They may look pretty in the night sky, but life on Earth would be chaotic.

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

What if you looked up into the sky and saw another planet instead of our moon?

YouTube channel What If explores the possibility of having other planets up in our skies.

And how would replacing the moon change the Earth's orbit and affect our planet?

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The moon maintains many aspects of our home planet, more than you might think, including predictable weather, and ocean currents.

Starting with the smallest planet Pluto, putting this planet in the place of our moon wouldn't make much difference.

Though, it would certainly be smaller in the sky.

'But this wouldn't be good for Earth,' the video explained. 'That's because Pluto's gravitational pull would be weaker than that of the moon.

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Without that pull, Earth would no longer be 'stabilised on its tilt', which doesn't sound like too big of a deal. But it would cause 'climate change on steroids,' according to What If.

Replacing the moon with Mercury, which is slightly larger, wouldn't drastically affect our daily lives, however.

Mercury's colour and asteroid craters look similar to our moon, and with it only being one and a half times larger, the impacts wouldn't be too disastrous to affect our daily lives.

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In fact, Mercury would be the safest planet out of our solar system to replace Earth's moon.

However, the same cannot be said for Mars.

The Red Planet's stronger gravitational pull would 'make tsunamis smaller,' the video described. 'But it would make normal ocean waves massive.'

With stronger tidal forces, the Earth's rotation would also slow down so days would become longer.

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If Venus replaced the moon, we might never experience darkness. Being the 'brightest planet in our solar system, it would reflect 60% more light than the moon.'

And because it's three and a half times bigger than our moon, it would force the Earth into a binary system. What this means is Earth and Venus would rotate each other.

Simulation of this type of system only ends one way - planets colliding.

What If/YouTube
What If/YouTube

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Meanwhile, Neptune and Uranus are both 'ice giants and similar in size' - we're talking 14 to 15 times larger than the moon.

They would look enormous in the sky and give it a blue-green tint.

But living on Earth would stink due to Uranus' atmosphere being filled with that rotten egg smell, hydrogen sulphide.

'Their impact on the Earth's rotation and tidal systems would be drastic,' What If added. 'Beach houses would have to be built up on cliffs, far enough away from the reach of enormous waves.'

Now, Saturn is something else. Due to its behemoth size, Earth would become Saturn's moon which would drastically alter life as we know it.

Finally, Jupiter. At 41 times the size of the moon, you wouldn't be able to spot its poles.

Similar to Saturn, Earth would orbit Jupiter but experience a much stronger gravitational pull on the side facing Jupiter.

'This would distort the shape of the Earth.,' the video continued. 'All this pulling apart would create frequent volcanic eruptions and violent earthquakes.

'Jupiter's gravitational pull would tear the Earth apart.'

Let's appreciate that we have a pretty chill and stable moon on Earth.

Featured Image Credit: What If/YouTube
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