The most significant questions often begin with 'What if?'
What if I got that job? What if the Earth stopped spinning? What if the universe ended? The scenarios are endless.
On a more unsettling note: What would happen if the moon disappeared?
Would we be stuck in complete darkness all the time?
Advert
One video - posted by Insider Tech - on YouTube answered the question: 'What would happen to life as we know it if the moon disappeared?'
And for us conscious beings, the answer is quite scary.
The moon is not just a shiny orb of light in the sky, it's needed for life. Experts believe it helped create life more than 3.5 billion years ago, and still, it keeps life on Earth stable today.
The video - which has been watched by over 1.5 million - shows a mini documentary on the impact the absence of the moon would have on planet Earth's life.
What makes the video most frightening is that it's not just theoretical. The moon is slowly drifting away from us - about 1.5 inches each year. As a result, it's slowing down our Earth's rotation.
The moon also has a huge influence on the Earth's tides. Without it, the video reveals a potential 75% reduction in high and low tides, endangering the lives of many crabs, mussels, and sea snails.
Within a matter of decades, we would see 'mass population declines in the sea and on land,' the video explains.
The video's animations then reveal the impact that the moon's absence would have on human life. Not necessarily would how it would impact us directly - but more so in weather changes.
With the moon controlling tidal currents, arctic and warmer water can mix and balance the temperatures across the planet. However, the video explains how the disrupted tidal currents could create an 'imbalance in the climate worldwide'. Weather forecasts would become impossible to predict and our hottest and coldest days could increase to 'life-threatening extremes.'
Reactions to the video are expressing both concern and insight, with one comment saying: 'Basically we as a whole need to start working on weather machines to prevent drastic temperature shifts, and to be able to diminish super storms caused by the increasing temperatures.'
Another commented: 'Videos like this bring hope cause it allows and forces people to be reminded not to take this planet Earth, Moon and Solar system for granted. Galaxy matters.'