What if the moon was closer to Earth

you hear some noise in the street and Rush up to the window to check what caused it you look up at the sky and just stand there speechless the Moon is giant it looks much larger than usual and it's both beautiful and scary so what would your life be like if the moon moved twice as close to Earth as it is now unfortunately it would be quite a catastrophic scenario you see the moon has a pretty strong gravitational pull on Earth's oceans it produces two high tides and two low tides per day but with the moon so close to us the tides would get eight times higher some regions would be completely covered with water during the day the water would only retreat at night many islands and highly populated Coastline territories would become uninhabited because of this many other regions would experience frequent devastating floods but if you think it would be the only consequence let me tell you this the moon also has a tidal effect on dry land that's why if our planet's natural satellite was to suddenly relocate its gravitational pull would increase Making Waves of energy reverberate throughout the planet this would affect earth's crust triggering earthquakes and starting volcanic eruptions now let's leave Earth and the giant moon for a while and have a look at Jupiter's moon EO which is the most volcanically active World in our solar system this volcanism comes from the push and pull from Jupiter's gravity two other moons of the gas giant also have an effect on poor EO that's why eo's surface is littered with hundreds of volcanoes most of them are spewing sulfurous plumes high above the surface of the Moon our planet might face the same fate should the moon move so close to it and that's not all Earth's spin would start to slow down over time look the moon's gravity pulls the oceans and the resulting friction between the water and the ocean floor slows Earth's spin yes Earth is slowing down even now as you're watching this video but this process is almost imperceptible around one thousandth of a second per century if the moon was twice as close to us the rotation of our planet would slow much more making days and nights longer if people managed to survive unexpected earthquakes high tides and volcanic eruptions and got used to longer days and nights they would get an award solar eclipses spectacular events that occur when the moon passes between the Sun and Earth would happen much more frequently since the moon would cover a much larger area in the sky it would pass in front of the sun more often people on Earth would be able to see the sun's outer atmosphere called the corona it would shine beautifully around the silhouette of the Moon such solar eclipses would also last much longer but what if the moon didn't shorten the distance overnight what if it was a much slower and much more gradual process then our planet's crust would shift more slowly Tides wouldn't change so dramatically either this would let living creatures on the planet get used to the new conditions and adjust in time longer days and nights would likely change the climate and animals would have to evolve to adapt to it their eyes would have to change to be able to deal with brighter Moonlight at night prey would have to learn to hide better but Predators on the other hand would have more advantages when hunting but what catastrophe would have to happen to make the moon move so close to Earth well it could be some massive object like a giant asteroid passing very close to the Earth Moon system if the moon was in the way of this space traveler it could take energy from Earth's satellite which would cause the moon to spiral towards our planet Have You Ever Seen The Other Side of the Moon ah I caught you of course not but maybe you've seen it in photos in that case have you ever wondered why the two sides look so different well let me tell you we can't see the other side of the moon people believe this is because the moon doesn't rotate around its axis but this is not true the moon does rotate it just does it at the same rate as its orbital motion this is a particular case of tidal locking called synchronous rotation the first time we ever saw a Far Side was only in 1959 all thanks to the Soviet Luna missions and later the U.S Apollo program now when Luna 3 and other spacecraft transmitted the first Far Side images they revealed a far more cratered hemisphere that looked more like Mercury or Jupiter's moon Callisto it looked completely different from what we were used to and that's when we learn how me the other side is no seriously just look at it the near side can boast it's thinner and smoother crust these beautiful dark splotches are called lunar mare the last remnants of ancient lava flows and when I say ancient I mean it they're more than 3 billion years old meanwhile The Far Side crust is thicker and crater pot the lava flows had almost no effect on these impact craters it's also devoid of any large-scale mare low-key looks like dried white cheese to be honest don't you agree that the nearby side is much more beautiful write your thoughts in the comments so only 50 years ago we learned something about the apparent differences but then the scientists discovered something weird both sides are different even in the geochemical composition and not only in this our side was thinner than The Far Side by several miles but where did such significant differences come from on an ordinary floating Stone own ball for scientists this was a mystery they started coming up with a lot of theories the melted Moon theory was the main one for a while it said that it was the Earth's fault that our moon looks like this this happened several billion years ago the moon was born because of a collision one day an object about the size of Mars crashed into the Earth at that moment a piece broke off from it which later became the moon however this piece was somewhere 15 times closer to Earth than it is now some scientists created pictures of the so-called early mode unlike our cute little white ball the early moan was a strange looking boiling Scarlet ball that piece didn't leave us after the separation it became tidally locked very soon after the Earth after the Collision was still an incandescent nightmare full of fire and lava it was boiling at a temperature of 4 500 degrees Fahrenheit and since the moon has always been turned toward us with one side this side has melted down a little this would explain why the moon's surface the so-called mantle is thinner on the near side than on the far side during the boiling of the earth certain elements evaporated from it they then settled on the moon this would explain the difference in geochemical composition between the two sides but there was a plot hole in this theory if that's what happened then where did rare foreign chemical elements come from such as unusual isotopes of phosphorus potassium or tungsten the nearby site is full of them and they couldn't have come from the earth there were also other theories another one said that initially we had two teeny tiny moons later they merged into a big one hence the difference in their composition but this Theory sounds a bit crazy and it has a plot hole too for example the transition between the two sides is way too soft if our moon was actually two tiny moons this transition would be more abrupt so scientists were kind of at a loss on this one but recently they finally figured out what really happened to the Moon all thanks to NASA's Grail orbiters they spent over a year whizzing around the Moon mapping it out and studying its composition using this data scientists have created around 360 computer simulations they contain different impacting objects of many sizes traveling at different speeds scientists were comparing the results with our current Moon they try to determine which result was the closest to what we have today and so they finally solved this 50 year old mystery the answer lies in a collision with a dwarf planet this Collision occurred 4.3 billion years ago this huge object was slightly larger than series for those who don't know Ceres is one of the dwarf planets of our solar system its diameter is 580 miles you could say that one France or one Germany would fit into it so this giant object crashed into the moon somewhere near the South Pole this Collision was so strong that it changed the image of the Moon forever it left a trail of 3 500 miles behind it would take you 14 hours by plane to fly that distance this crater covered the entire near Side of the Moon it caused damage to the moon's mantle it also created a so-called South Pole Aiken base or Spa Basin this is an impact crater and has a diameter of 1600 miles which is like adding one UK plus one Germany it's important though the formation of this Basin was a defining event in the history of the Moon and it's the second largest impact crater in the solar system the Collision also caused a powerful hot wave to spread across the moon this wave scattered over the remnants of those rare warm minerals scientists found on the nearby side that's how our beautiful side became home to something called procellarum creep terrain or pkt for short this is basically a compositional anomaly a concentration of potassium phosphorus and other rare elements like thorium you can say that those minerals are a gift to us from Deep base anyway there were many and I mean many collisions in the moon's history all of them only deep in this already large crater that's why the mantle on the near side was Getting Thinner and thinner with the ears also our gifted minerals gave off a lot of heat so the mantle has melted a little bit more and more oops this accidentally caused the moons of volcanoes to wake up volcanic activity has increased on the near side intense lava flows filled the old empty craters ta-da and this is how the beautiful lunar mare was born and that's about how it all happened all this information was found thanks to the researchers from Brown Purdue Stanford universities and NASA's JPL the research was published by the Journal of geophysical research planets so you can read about it in more detail if you're interested there are still many things we need to learn about the moon the highest prior priority is the return Mission from the South Pole the Aitkin Basin samples brought from there will be used to determine the age of the Moon its history and the nature of the crust and mantle more accurately another critical Target is the mosque of Jens this is the name of a large lava plane on The Far Side of the Moon studying it will help us better understand the difference between the two sides as well as tell us how the other side was formed all this knowledge is significant for understanding the history of the moon but it's also handy for space exploration in general scientists use the moon as a reference point to determine the age of other planets and entire worlds in Space the moon helps us determine the chronology of the life of the whole solar system so stay tuned for new exciting research and discoveries you're strapped in your seat in the vast open space with Earth behind you getting smaller and smaller all around you are toggles and controls to keep the spacecraft intact you and two other crew members are working hard at those controls out the window you see some meteorites flying by and stars and planets out in the distance you're about to be one of the first people to land on the moon after years of research and testing you have to consider all the steps perfectly otherwise you could face many complications like crashing into a flying asteroid or even being left in the vacuum of space without any way of getting on track research shows that around one-third of all moon landings faced many problems launching towards the moon requires a special rocket traveling at more than 25 000 miles per hour and once in lunar orbit the spacecraft can detach itself from the rocket and navigate its way to the surface of the Moon and land sounds simple right well figuring out the math to land was the reason Landing a human on the moon used to seem like a ridiculous idea but scientists were able to pull it off by studying and observing the flight of helicopters unlike an airplane that needs velocity to take off the large propellers on a helicopter give it a good push to fly around it basically has to twirl with enough Force to lift its own weight from the ground with that in mind we need to consider the gravitational force pulling everything down on Earth the force of gravity is 32 feet per second squared on the moon it's only five feet per second squared so we got landing on Earth figured out for the most part but what about landing on a surface that barely assists you in that there had to be three steps doing all the research and math needed for calculating the proper conditions using a test vehicle to practice it and using a flight simulator to imitate the conditions of the moon's atmosphere Choppers weren't really good references for landing gravity is doing most of the work and the spacecraft looks nothing like a helicopter they needed to simulate a spaceship of only five six the weight of it since the gravitational pull on the moon is weaker than on Earth navigating it under these conditions is vital for when the real thing comes the scientists of NASA decided to get a crane hanger to lift the spacecraft with cables while simulating the flight and Landing kind of like stunt actors in a movie with cables attached them for Action fight scenes but it still wasn't enough to determine if you could actually land properly on the moon without the safety cables to help you they needed proper freedom so it was back to the drawing board they were about to throw in the towel until they came up with a brilliant idea to simulate The Landing conditions on the Moon by installing a sort of detachable Jet fan into the bottom of the spacecraft to keep consistent thrust upwards by doing this they were able to create a scenario where the craft would be five six of its weight on Earth and without the safety cables to hold it but after many trials and errors the only way to see if landing on the moon was possible was by actually doing it so being so far away from Earth you and your team see the moon out your window it's a lot bigger than it looks from Earth its surface fills up the entire window but landing won't be a piece of cake the spaceship has to orbit around the Moon to determine the best time to land and don't worry that's why you have a team for that it can take more than 24 hours to know when and where the perfect place to land is after performing various tests and measurements and once you get the best calculations the actual spaceship detaches from the orbiting one and makes its way downwards this is where the helicopter physics come into play a helicopter needs to Tilt at least five degrees to move forward after ascending from the ground same for going backwards but that's because we have gravity to assist it up above the Moon soaring through the vacuum of space the ship would need to Tilt at least 30 to 40 degrees to move forward as soon as the ship reached a nice spot for landing it would go back to 90 degrees and slowly land on the surface as you get closer you can see the moon's surface just a few feet away this is the tricky part but it's a success the team back on Earth couldn't be happier the crew members are also thrilled about what you've achieved you put on your spacesuit and gear and climb down the ladder you leave your first footprint on the moon and look out at the distance ahead of you the Earth is just a little blue dot far away you're able to bounce around in the near zero gravity Now That's What I Call moonwalking after spending much time on the moon it's time to head back Neil Armstrong the first man to step on the moon spend only about two and a half hours on its surface before returning but oh no you forgot the keys inside the ship and now you're stranded nah just kidding although it would have made a good plot twist you get back and launch the spacecraft back into orbit to reunite with the other ship above you and once you've reattached you exit the moon's orbit and head back to Earth by sending humans to the Moon consistently the next big step can be achieved by landing on Mars the famous exploration rover Curiosity traveled around the surface of Mars and gathered information needed for humans to land there and NASA is aiming to have the first humans up there after 2030. the journey will be hundreds of times harder than the one towards the moon but many scientific questions will be answered once it happens humans may be able to gather some of the natural resources there and even build outposts and colonies there are endless possibilities as well as challenges the journey from the Earth to the Moon is around 250 000 miles Mars is around 35 million miles away there could be a possibility of a new human Outpost station on Mars building a new Society of scientists and Engineers to make the most out of the conditions it would be completely self-sufficient providing proper ways for farming and Agriculture and by having humans on Mars for so long scientists can properly understand the planet but to understand how the human body responds to deep space environment we'd have to have a lot of practice before getting that ticket to Mars the closest experience of having a colony in the middle of nowhere is the Amazon Scott station on the South Pole it's designed to withstand all the harsh conditions of the freezing dry coal being at the bottom of the world can be pretty stressful without proper practice the journey may not be as far as Mars or the Moon but being on the South Pole is like arriving on a whole new planet the station itself is equipped to provide the proper conditions everyone needs to be comfortable besides the strong heating system the station has a recreational room for sports and music a library a lounge and even a greenhouse to grow all the right veggies and fruits in fact the greenhouse is the only way you'd get to feel like you're in a rainforest and even before applying there you'd have to get screened to see if you can handle the isolation for months not that you'd be completely alone but still away from civilization Antarctica's whole population consists of scientists and engineers and you need to be examined by a doctor to determine if you're physically fit to stay there the station is built there for scientists to study space in things related to geology being in the biggest desert in the world can take its toll on you when leaving the station you have to wear at least three layers of gloves and extremely thick sweaters and jackets to withstand the cold they even compared stepping on the South Pole to walking on the moon.