Look, up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No . . . it is the Moon!

The Moon has been an intrinsic part of human culture from its beginnings. Since the first humans began to make art in caves, the Moon was already a special element of their paintings. And it sure is still special for us today. As our closest cosmic companion, humans have shared millennia of evolution with the Moon in many ways.

But we do not usually stop to think about what would happen if the Moon had never accompanied us. What if the Moon had never existed or if it disappeared today? Could we expect things on our planet to stay the same?

In fact, we are about to see that everything that makes the Earth special could be lost in the absence of such a dusty rock orbiting us.

10 Earth’s Seasons Would Become Crazy

While the Earth revolves around the Sun, it also rotates on its own axis, which turns out to be tilted. Currently, the rotation axis of the Earth is inclined about 23.4 degrees, a value that does not change during the year.

As a result, in a certain part of the year, the northern hemisphere is more oriented toward the Sun than the southern one is. Six months later, when the Earth is on the opposite side of its orbit around the Sun, the southern hemisphere is now the one facing toward the star. In this way, both hemispheres of the Earth receive different amounts of sunlight and heat according to the time of year in what we know as annual seasons.

The reason why the Earth is tilted on its axis goes back to its formation 4.5 billion years ago. When the early version of the Earth collided with another planetary body, its rotation axis inclined drastically. Then, the attraction of the Moon stabilized this inclination to the current one, with small fluctuations over the span of millennia.

So, what would happen if the Moon did not exist?

Well, some experts believe that the Earth would tilt up to 85 degrees more than now. Others are more modest and assume that this inclination could be up to 20 degrees. Either way, the Earth’s axis would tilt so much that the poles would be exposed to the Sun, melting their ice caps and triggering extreme climatic shifts. In fact, a change of only one degree in the inclination of our planet’s axis is enough to cause ice ages.^[1]

9 The Oceans Would Come Down

Among the best-known effects that the Moon produces on Earth are ocean tides. Together with the Sun, the Moon is responsible for increasing and decreasing the level of our seas several times a day. As the Moon revolves around the Earth, the former’s gravity pulls the oceans toward it and thus high tides are created.

In essence, the closer the Moon is, the higher the tides. To get an idea of the power of the Moon over the oceans, the maximum height difference between low and high tides can be as much as 16 meters (52 ft).

If the Moon were not there to cause this effect, ocean tides would be significantly reduced. There would still be tides because the gravitational force of the Sun also does its part over the Earth’s water, although its attraction is less than that of the Moon.^[2]

In short, the tides would be reduced to one-third of their current size and the oceans would become much calmer. The sea level would also be affected. Without the gravity of the Moon, the oceanic water would be redistributed uniformly across the entire surface of the Earth. Therefore, the sea level at the poles would increase drastically.

8 Say Goodbye To Any Other Moon

Earth’s gravitational pull influences the height at which our spacecraft orbit the planet. For this reason, some structures in low orbits—such as the International Space Station—must make periodic corrections in their course to avoid falling into Earth’s atmosphere.

However, there are points in space with a perfect balance between the gravity of the Earth and that of the Moon. Anything within these points will remain relatively stationary with respect to both celestial bodies. Neither the Earth nor the Moon will be able to attract the object until it falls to any of their surfaces. These are the Lagrange points.

In 2018, Hungarian astronomers discovered that at two of those points—L4 and L5—there are huge clouds of interplanetary dust orbiting Earth with a size up to nine times larger than our planet. In addition, another study states that Lagrange points could momentarily capture small asteroids, which become temporary “mini-moons” of the Earth before resuming their journeys.^[3]

If there were no Moon, the Lagrange points shared with Earth would also disappear. The dust clouds trapped there would just disperse, ultimately intersecting Earth or being blown away by the solar wind and the gravity of other planets. In the case of the asteroids, the lack of the Moon would make these objects keep crossing outer space in an unaltered trajectory until impacting with a larger body—perhaps our own world.

7 How About Much Shorter Days?

One of the things that makes our planet so habitable is its rotation time. Currently, Earth completes one revolution every 24 hours—specifically, 23 hours and 56 minutes. This allows the planet to have a pleasant climate for life because all its surface has enough time to warm and cool according to the moment. But this was not always the case. Scientists are now convinced that Earth’s days were much shorter millions of years ago.

When the Earth and the Moon formed 4.5 billion years ago, the planet was spinning so fast that the day only lasted four hours.^[4] During the time when dinosaurs roamed Earth, the day already lasted 23 hours. And on June 30, 2012, clocks around the world had to mark an extra second before 00:00 to keep pace with the longer days.

The cause of this delay is nothing less than, you guessed it, the Moon. It happens that the gravity of the Moon exerts friction forces on the Earth itself and slows down the planet’s rotation two milliseconds every 100 years. As the Moon keeps moving away from Earth—at a current rate of 3.82 centimeters (1.5 in) per year—our world loses rotational energy and slows down its spin.

If the Moon had not existed from the beginning, we could expect the days to be several hours shorter than they are today. If the Moon disappeared now, the days would remain almost unchanged at about 24 hours long. But if everything remains the same as it has been so far, the days will last 25 hours in about 180 million years.

6 Forget About Plate Tectonics

By this point, we are already clear that the Moon’s gravity exerts great effects on the natural processes of the Earth. For example, we saw that the Moon causes the ocean tides. But the Moon is so powerful over our world that it also produces tides on solid ground—something we know as Earth tides.

Earth tides are fluctuations in the relative height of the Earth’s crust at a daily frequency similar to that of ocean tides. As the Moon constantly pulls the surface of the Earth, the ground beneath us can rise up to 30 centimeters (12 in) at a given time of day. This is due to the elasticity of the Earth’s crust, which has fissures that allow large landmasses—the tectonic plates—to move.

Speaking of tectonic plates, what would happen to them if there were no Moon?

It is believed that the Moon originated after the Earth lost much of its primordial crust during an interplanetary collision. If the Moon had never been formed, all that crust would have remained on Earth, filling in the gaps in which the oceans lie today.^[5]

The Earth would not have tectonic plates because there would be no space for them to move. In addition, the Earth’s surface would be made of a single piece, which would prevent the processes needed to form mountains. That is right. There would be no mountains on our planet except for some scattered volcanoes. Assuming there was still some ocean on Earth, the water would cover the entire surface of the planet.

Some studies indicate that Earth tides are related to the occurrence of small earthquakes. There is a possibility that weak earthquakes occur when the stress in the crust caused by the attraction of the Moon is high. So, in the event that the Moon disappeared today and Earth tides were reduced considerably, so would the frequency of such tremors.

5 We’d Lose A Shield Against Unwanted Space Rocks

Today, we know that the Earth is bombarded by small meteoroids at a higher frequency than previously thought. The number of meteoric impacts on our planet has tripled during the last 290 million years to the point that 33 tons of space debris fall to Earth every day. Due to their size, most of these rocks burn completely in the Earth’s atmosphere. However, without the presence of the Moon, the impact rate could be much higher, making the Earth a fairly hostile place.

The Moon is almost 3,500 kilometers (2,175 mi) in diameter—about 27 percent of the Earth’s diameter. Thanks to its large size, the Moon has served as a protection for Earth in times of cosmic adversity.^[6]

During the planet’s early days, the Moon attracted to itself a large part of the interplanetary debris and asteroids wandering in this area of the solar system. Had our natural companion not existed, the neighborhood of Earth would have been like a minefield too dangerous for the development of life.

Even today, the Moon is still like a small shield that protects us from meteoric impacts. Studies show that the gravity of the Moon helps to prevent more asteroid collisions with the Earth than it causes.

And how much is that?

Well, just between 2005 and 2013, NASA detected more than 300 impacts on the lunar surface. This means that in the absence of the Moon, hundreds of such bodies could have ended up impacting us. So, in that sense, it is hard to imagine Earth without its Moon.

4 No More Moon, No More Gold

Gold, platinum, palladium, iridium. These metallic elements have proved extremely valuable to our civilization. We have used them in all kinds of inventions—from cars and spaceships to electronics and jewelry. But again, it is likely that we would not have such materials without the Moon.

Why?

To understand it, we must go a little deeper into the facts surrounding the formation of the Moon. About 4.5 billion years ago, a rock the size of Mars—which scientists have called Theia—hit squarely against the hot, molten surface of early Earth.

Both the outer layer of Theia and part of the Earth’s mantle were ejected into space, agglomerating in Earth’s orbit to form the Moon. However, the core of Theia stayed here on Earth and the metals that composed Theia became part of our planet.

If the Moon had never formed, the concentration of precious metals in the Earth’s mantle would be much lower. It happens that metals like gold and platinum tend to be attracted to iron. On a molten planet like the Earth was at first, these metals would have sunk until they reached the iron core. They would have been trapped there forever once the core began to cool.

But thanks to the formation of the Moon after an interplanetary impact, abundant amounts of metallic elements were scattered in the Earth’s mantle. There they waited until seismic activity dragged them to the surface and to us.^[7]

3 Earth’s Magnetic Bubble Would Be Switched Off Forever

Earth’s magnetic field (aka magnetosphere) is essential for the development of life on this planet. Such a magnetic bubble surrounds the Earth and constantly protects it from solar wind, a flow of charged particles that come from the Sun with the power to destroy our atmosphere. But the magnetosphere also protects us because it prevents life from being bombarded by harmful cosmic and solar radiation.

The magnetosphere exists due to something known as the geodynamo, which is the rotary motion of the molten iron core of the Earth. Such a movement of the internal magnetic metals causes the magnetosphere to remain strong.

This geodynamo exists thanks to the tidal forces that the Moon exerts on the Earth. As the Moon flattens and stretches the inner layers of the Earth with its gravitational force, enough energy is generated to keep the planet’s core hot and moving.

If we did not have the Moon and its exchange of rotational energy, the Earth’s core would stop moving and then it would solidify. With the geodynamo lost, the magnetosphere of the planet would vanish, allowing the solar wind to devour the atmosphere completely. Without an atmosphere, every water reservoir on the Earth’s surface would evaporate and solar radiation would turn our world into a barren desert.

In fact, this description can be perfectly applied to what happened with Mars. Having been like Earth once, Mars lost its magnetosphere 4.2 billion years ago, becoming the scorched, red rock it is today.^[8]

2 Warning: Wild Weather

If there were no Moon, the weather patterns on Earth would go crazy. Of course, this assumes that the Earth still had an atmosphere. First, the destabilization of the Earth’s axis due to the lack of the Moon would cause extreme changes in global temperatures.

As the poles would remain longer under the Sun’s heat, the surrounding oceans could reach a temperature of at least 47 degrees Celsius (116 °F). Meanwhile, the areas at the equator would suffer from glaciations.

The phases of the Moon in the sky also affect the rainfall of a region. When the Moon is overhead, the atmospheric pressure and the air temperature increase, which translates into less rainfall for that place. If the Moon did not exist, we could expect more rain. But the effect caused by the Moon is so minimal that the increase in rainfall would be only 1 percent.

In addition, we know that planets with a faster rotation also have stronger winds. For example, a day on Jupiter lasts about 10 hours and its winds are 160–320 kilometers per hour (100–200 mph).

Meanwhile, Saturn completes a rotation in about 10.5 hours, having winds that can reach 1,800 kilometers per hour (1,118 mph). And as we discussed earlier, without the Moon, the Earth would rotate faster, with days that could essentially last several hours less.

Under these conditions and despite the obvious differences between planets (such as Earth and Jupiter in terms of size and composition), the winds on our planet could reach 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) on any day. Hurricanes would have even stronger winds with a greater destructive force.^[9]

1 It Would Be A World Devoid Of Intelligent Life

Despite everything we’ve already discussed, we have not delved into the fact that complex life on Earth might not exist at all without a moon to take care of us. Without the Moon, the Earth would have been hit by a greater number of large asteroids and planetary bodies. Under this scenario, life would have had a hard time trying to exist, which means a lower probability that living beings would have become more complex over time.

It is believed that the stabilization of the Earth’s axis provided by the Moon, combined with continental drift, allowed the emergence of many different ecosystems across the planet. These ecosystems, which were more complex than those at the time of the dinosaurs, contributed to the emergence of mammals and, ultimately, of humans. So, had the Moon never existed, beings like us would also have had a lower probability of coming into existence.^[10]

But it is possible that not even life as we know it would have appeared on Earth if the Moon had not helped. We know that life originated in the primordial oceans where molecules merged to form nucleic acids, the elementary building blocks of life. Without the gravitational pull of the Moon, there would not have been enough salt concentrations in the seawater for such life-making chemistry to have taken place.

As the Moon controls tides on Earth and the tides transport the minerals needed for the subsistence of marine life, it is difficult to imagine life in the oceans without our natural satellite making it possible. It is also worth mentioning that without the Earth’s magnetosphere, for which the Moon is largely responsible, solar radiation would break down the oceans, erasing all chance of vital chemical processes arising there.

That is why, when looking for habitable worlds in other regions of the galaxy, scientists focus on finding planets with large moons that allow the development of life.

Brian is an economy student, graphic artist, science enthusiast, and founder of A Strange Place Called Knowledge. You can reach his site at https://strange-knowledge.com/.

The moon is one of the visible features of the night sky. Little wonder humans have blamed it for almost everything they cannot find answers to. While the moon is usually innocent—as you are about to find out—it is not always so. The moon has sometimes turned up guilty of accusations leveled against it.

These accusations vary and are not necessarily bad. But all are weird, or at least, unexpected. They are things we would not expect people to link to the moon.

See Also: Top 10 Strange And Scary Facts About Moons

10 Madness

We have long associated madness with the full moon. In fact, the term “lunatic” was formed from Luna, the Latin word for the moon. In the first century, the famous Roman author and philosopher, Pliny the Elder, claimed full moons stimulated the formation of dew. This dew, he claimed, increased the amount of water in our brains, leading to occasional bouts of madness.

This misconception was reinforced in the 1978 book, The Lunar Effect: Biological Tides and Human Emotions, by Arnold L. Lieber. Lieber wrote that the gravitational pull of the moon attracted the fluids in our body, the same way it attracts water in the ocean, causing tides. Lieber claimed the attraction caused fluids to jump around in our brains, causing madness.

Several researchers have proven the moon is innocent of all charges. The moon has no effect on our brain and does not make us mad. Psychologist, Professor Scott Lilienfeld of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, even has an interesting explanation for why we think the full moon makes us mad.

He says the rumors began centuries before the invention of electricity, at a time when people depended on moonlight to see at night. At the time, people spent more time outside during full moons. This included people with mental illness, who had more time to behave irrationally, causing the superstition.

9 The Death Of General Stonewall Jackson

Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died of pneumonia on May 10, 1863. This was just a week after he was shot by his own troops in the night of May 2, 1863. The Confederates had launched an offensive against the Union that night, leading to the Battle of Chancellorsville. The General was shot after he and his unit were mistaken for invading Union troops.

Researchers, Don Olson and Laurie E. Jasinski of Texas State University have blamed the shooting on the full moon on the night of the battle. Here is the thing with the full moon. We often assume full moons increase visibility. This is often true—unless the moon is right in front of you. At that point, everything in front of you will appear as a dark, featureless shadow.

The moon was right in front of the soldiers of the 18th North Carolina infantry, who shot the general that night. They could not see the approaching soldiers clearly. All they saw were the black shadows of approaching men and horses. They opened fire the moment the unit got too close. General Jackson was struck by three musket balls that destroyed his left arm. He died of complications a week later.

8 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

On March 11, 2011, a deadly magnitude 9 earthquake tore through northeast Japan. An equally deadly tsunami followed shortly after. By the time it was over, 15,894 people were dead with another 2,500 missing. Over a million buildings were either damaged or destroyed. The disaster cost between $199 billion dollars and $235 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster ever.

The earthquake was surprising because Japan’s early earthquake warning system never detected it. This made skeptics blame it on some sudden unexpected event—like the gravitational pull of the moon. This sounded plausible considering the earthquake occurred a week after a new moon and a week before an upcoming super moon.

You see, the orbit of the moon is actually oval and not circular. This means the distance between the earth and the moon changes every time. When the moon is closest to the earth, we call it a super moon. The super moon is like a full moon, except that it is larger and brighter.

The moon’s gravitational pull on the earth is most powerful during the new and super moons. In fact, there is evidence that this powerful gravitational pull puts more pressure on geological faults, causing seismic activities and ultimately, earthquakes. However, that was not what happened this time. The moon’s gravitational pull on the earth was actually at its weakest at the time the earthquake hit.

7Childbirth

For centuries, people have speculated that more children are born during full moons than on any other time of the month. The rumors probably began over the erroneous belief that the gravitational pull of the full moon affected the amniotic fluid in the belly of pregnant women—the same way it does with oceans. This supposedly causes the water to break, inducing labor.

This is false. Series of studies have proven that the gravitational pull of the moon has no effect on women, childbirth or labor. The most expansive of these studies was published by Daniel Caton in 2001. Caton analyzed the details of 70 million children born over 20 years. He discovered that more children were not born on nights with full moons. Unfortunately, this rumor is one that just wouldn’t die.

6 Positive Stock Market Returns

Several studies have indicated that stock market returns appreciate during the 14 to 15 days around a new moon. One study, which involved 25 stock exchanges in the G7 countries, revealed that profits become three times higher during new moons than at any other time of the month.

That said, do not think of buying stocks during new moons to sell during the full moon two weeks later. While you would turn in a decent profit if you did, you will lose most of that money to transaction costs since you would be buying and selling stocks very often. Besides, Stocks also appreciate at other times of the month, just not as much as they do around new moons.

5 Acute Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis

Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis is a painful eye condition caused by one of enterovirus 70 or coxsackievirus A24 viruses. The affected eye becomes reddened and swollen with pus dripping out of it. Fortunately, the infection is rarely lethal and often disappears on its own within a week.

The condition is most common in Africa though it has been observed in several other countries including the United States. Africans call it Apollo, in reference to the Apollo 11 moon landing. This is because the condition was first observed in Ghana in 1969, the same year Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed on the moon.

People assumed the crew of Apollo 11 had brought it back to earth on their return from the moon. In fact, some called it “Apollo 11 disease” so others could know what they were talking about. People know better these days though. However, they still call it Apollo even though they no longer blame it on the moon landing.

4 Menstruation

People have always believed the human menstrual cycle is in sync with the moon. In fact, menstruation is from the Latin mensis (“month”), which itself is from mene, the Greek word for moon. The rumor probably arose after people observed the moon took around 28 days to complete an orbit round the earth. The human menstrual cycle also comes around every 28 days on the average.

One of the modern menstrual-moon cycle rumors was traced to one Doctor Eugene Jonas who observed that women were getting pregnant despite only having sex when they were not ovulating. Doctor Jonas concluded that women had two fertile periods. One was based on their regular menstrual cycle while the other was the result of what he called the lunar cycle.

The lunar cycle is supposedly based on the movement of the moon round the earth. Doctor Jonas had no scientific evidence to back up his theory. His personal belief in astrology was all he had. However, he went on with it anyway.

That said, there is no evidence that the human menstrual cycle is linked to the moon. Besides, every woman has a different cycle that lasts for anything between 21 and 35 days. The 28-day cycle is only an average.

3 The Great Crypto Crash

The cryptocurrency market suffered a massive crash in January 2018. Every cryptocurrency depreciated by around 80% in less than a month. Bitcoin itself went from $20,000 per coin in December 2017 to $10,000 per coin in January 2018. For comparison, businesses lost around 78% of their value in the infamous dot com bubble of 2000.

The effect of this crash was so massive that it was named The Great Crypto Crash. It was surprising too, considering cryptocurrencies had rapidly appreciated in late 2017. Investors and analysts began looking around for whatever they could blame for the misfortune. It appears that someone just looked up into the sky and blamed the moon.

This claim was made by Alexander Wallin, the CEO of the investing platform, Sprinklebit. He actually blamed the drop on the Chinese New year. The Chinese New Year (also called the Lunar New Year) is based on the lunar calendar. The two-week event starts on the night of the first new moon of the lunar year and ends on the first full moon.

Wallin claimed bitcoin crashed when Chinese investors cashed their bitcoins to fund their New Year celebrations, which began on February 16. This pumped more bitcoins into the market, crashing prices. This is plausible considering Chinese citizens hold a lot of bitcoins. However, are we really blaming the moon for the crash?

2 Vehicle Accidents

Full moons have a terrible reputation for causing accidents. This is unfortunately true. Researchers from Princeton University and the University of Toronto reached the conclusion after studying deadly motorcycle accidents in the US, UK, Canada and Australia over a 30-year period. They discovered there were 5% more accidents on full moons than other nights.

This got worse during super moons when the likelihood of an accident increases to 27%. Researchers believe this is because full and super moons tick all three boxes required for an object to be considered distracting. They are large, bright and could suddenly appear without warning. Besides, people are likelier to be out on full moons and riders could be tempted to ride faster because of the increased visibility.

1 Crime

Full moons have long been associated with increased criminal activities. This theory has been reinforced by police units like the British Sussex police, which claimed that more crimes occurred during full moons. The Sussex police reached this conclusion after analyzing their 2006 crime records. They discovered they recorded more crimes during full moons than on other nights.

This trend has been observed by researchers too. However, the theory is inconclusive because other researchers have found no correlation between crimes rates and the full moon. Even if it were true, the increased crime rate is not caused by the mind-altering powers of the moon as some believe. The moon has no effect on our mind.

Instead, the light from the moon encourages people to remain outdoors for longer. At the same time, criminals prowl the streets during full moons because they need light to commit crimes. The light needs to be bright enough so they can see but dark enough so they can sneak to their victims and catch them by surprise. This is called the illumination hypothesis.

The moon has been associated with a wide variety of superstitions across cultures, even if there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about it; far cooler satellites exist right in our solar system. From its use in the occult to dating advice on Instagram, many people believe it to be much more influential in our daily lives than it really is, even if study after study has proven that it’s really not.

Among all the chatter about lunar phases affecting your third dates and the moon being the literal devil, we forget about the real, bizarre effects it has on life on Earth. Many creatures – including us – respond to the lunar cycle in weird ways. While some of them are learned responses over millennia of evolution, we simply have no explanation for the others.

See Also: 10 Changes The Earth Would Suffer If It Had No Moon

10The Menstrual Cycle Mimics The Lunar Cycle

If you spend some time in the crazier parts of the Internet, you’d come to associate the moon with a lot of weird stuff. Of course, a lot of it isn’t based on any scientific evidence—much like most of the Internet – as the moon is nothing but a cold mass of rock in a perpetual orbit around our planet.

Some of those theories, though, may not have been as far-fetched as we thought, as science is gradually finding out. Take the one about the menstrual cycle being in tune with the lunar cycle, which has been a guiding belief for cults throughout history. It could be dismissed as medieval superstition, though there’s quite a bit of scientific evidence backing it. A few studies have found definitive links between the lunar and menstrual cycles. According to one, women also go through increased levels of hormones around the full moon.

While we’re not sure why that could be, we can refer to some experts guesses. Charles Darwin believed that the menstrual cycle – on average – coincides with the monthly moon cycle for a reason. It backed his then-nascent theory that we first came from the ocean, as this proves that we adjusted our reproductive clocks according to the lunar tides at some point. We’re no experts, but that makes sense to us, as the average span of the menstrual cycle does almost-perfectly coincide with the lunar cycle.

9 Lemur Sex

We can all agree that we’ve massively exaggerated moon’s influence on animals in the past, even if anecdotal evidence does suggest that wolves have a personal problem with it. While it’s true that scientifically speaking, the moon has little to do with most animals, though it does have some weird effects on a handful of them.

Lemurs, for example, have been found to be much more active during the full moon than usual, covering larger distances and generally being more out and about.

They’re so dependent on the moon that they essentially shut down on darker nights or lunar eclipses, though we can’t really explain why. One line of reasoning says that it’s because of the level of light available during the different phases of the lunar cycle. That could be true, though if so, why didn’t other diurnal animals evolve in a similar way?

8 Our Sleep Cycle

We all go through bouts of bad sleep every now and then. It could be caused by a variety of factors, like stress, weather, location of the house etc. While it’s almost always something you can detect and fix, sometimes, it’s caused by nothing. We can’t really answer for all cases of bad sleep here, but for anyone going through irregular sleeping patterns around specific times of the month, we’d suggest looking at the moon.

A researcher from the University of Basel found that there is some scientific basis to the long-time belief that the moon has something to do with our sleeping pattern. According to his research, people took five minutes longer to sleep during a full moon, and their sleep time also reduced by 20 minutes on average. Lower levels of melatonin were also reported during full moons, as well as reduced brain activity.

7 Crimes

The moon has always been associated with aggression and crimes, though we’ve never really understood why. Many independent and isolated cultures have described the moon as an omen of chaos that fills everyone with restlessness and rage, blaming their most primitive urges on a rock hanging in the sky.

While there was never any scientific proof to back this claim, some recent studies suggest that the moon may actually have some effect on our collective psyche. Or at least how we patrol our streets after dark, according to one study done by the Sussex police. They concluded that there is a definite rise in crimes during full moons, though admitted that they don’t understand why, as they’re cops and not psychologists. That’s not the only case, either; higher incidents of crime and violence on full moons have been reported around the world.

6 Crisis Calls

With the list of reasons to get worried growing by the day, it’s hard to keep track of what’s making you stressed. It’s a normal side effect of routine life, and isolating the root causes of is essential for day-to-day productivity and healthy relationships. Sometimes, though, there really is nothing you can do, as the reason you’re stressed is the damn moon.

According to a study based on the call records of a crisis center, there’s a disproportionate rise in the number of calls during new moons, suggesting that the moon maybe doing something to stress us out. Surprisingly, it was only true for women, as men actually made less calls during that time.

5 It Affects Lions’ Hunting Patterns

Not that we’d advise you to do anything of the sort, but if you ever find yourself lost in a lion’s natural habitat, there are few things you can do to stay alive. Other than misguidedly trying to fight it and making a run for it, you’re really out of options. It’s an even bigger problem—according to science at least – if it’s the day after a full moon.

As a study published in PloS ONE found, African lions are much more aggressive in the days after the full moon, as well as more likely to attack people. While it may seem like arbitrary behavior at first, it makes sense and goes with the lion’s hunting style. They don’t actually need a lot of light to hunt, and on top of that, a full moon makes it easier for the prey to sense danger and run away, resulting in reduced food output.

The days immediately after the full moon are prime lion hunting time, as they compensate – perhaps reflexively – by killing more prey and just generally being more menacing than usual.

4 Animal Bites

Animal bites are a side effect of co-existing with a diverse array of species. From birds to snakes to big cats, we’ve been bitten by almost every type of animal there is. While it may cause serious conditions in some cases, we realize that’s there’s nothing we can really do to stop it. Animals biting us all the time is as much a part of life on Earth as rain.

Weirdly enough, animal bites are apparently not as random as we thought, and may have some mysterious connection with the moon. One study found that cases of animal bites were significantly higher on the days of the full moon, though they don’t quite understand why. It wasn’t just one type of animal either, as they studied 1,621 cases of bites from a variety of animals, which means that it’s not a species-specific phenomenon.

3 Its Weird Effects On Plants

As we’re finding out, the moon has some wholly bizarre effects on animals and humans, though it’s not restricted to us. As growing research is finding out, it also has a significant impact on our chlorophyll-filled friends; the plants. Many studies have found relationships between the lunar cycle and the growth of plants, and we haven’t been able to explain all of them.

One study found that root growth in a specific plant from Africa, A. thaliana, is regulated by the lunar tides, as the growth was found to be thicker and faster at the highest phases of the tide. Previous studies have found that leaf movement in some plants may be related to the lunar tides, too.

2 It Makes Cats And Dogs More Prone To Injuries

As we discussed earlier, pets and other animals are more prone to biting during a full moon, for reasons that may not be fully known to us. If we talk about the most common animals around us, though – cats and dogs – their relationship with the moon has an added dimension; a full moon makes them more prone to injuries, too.

Published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the study found that the number of emergency room visits for cats and dogs was noticeably higher around the full moon. While it was something veterinarians have always suspected and anecdotally claimed, this was the first study to confirm it. We still don’t know why it happens, though.

1 The Moon’s Relationship With Bipolar Disorder

The moon has always been suspected to mess around with our mood and mental state. It may not have ever been proven by science, but people have claimed to be more depressed and anxious during the full moon for a long time. That may seem like superstition to most, though if one study is anything to go by, there may have been some truth to it.

Conducted by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, the study’s aim was to ascertain whether the lunar cycle has anything to do with the various mood spells among bipolar patients. To their surprise, they found a direct correlation between the cycles of the moon and the sleep and mood cycle of the subject. They perfectly – and mysteriously—coincided with each other, including, and especially, the phases of mania. It confirmed the findings of an earlier study done on the subject, which came up with more or less the same results.

The theory that the moon landings were hoaxed by the US government to assert their victory in the space race over Russia, is something which has grown in popularity over time.

Recent polls indicate that approximately 20% of Americans believe that the U.S. has never landed on the moon. After the Apollo missions ended in the seventies, why haven’t we ever been back? Only during the term of Richard Nixon did humanity ever land on the moon, and after Watergate most people wouldn’t put it past Tricky Dick to fake them to put America in good standing in the Cold War.

In this list I have presented some of the proposed evidence to suggest that the moon landings were hoaxes. I tried to include NASA’s explanations to each entry to provide an objective perspective.


Much like the waving flag theory, however, the lack of an impact crater has a slew of potential explanations. NASA maintains that the module required significantly less thrust in the low-gravity conditions than it would have done on Earth. The surface of the moon itself is solid rock, so a blast crater probably wouldn’t be feasible anyway – in the same way that an aeroplane doesn’t leave a crater when it touches down on a concrete airstrip.



NASA has attempted to blame uneven landscape on the strange shadows, with subtle bumps and hills on the moon’s surface causing the discrepancies. This explanation has been tossed out the window by some theorists; how could hills cause such large angular differences? In the image above the lunar module’s shadow clearly contradicts that of the rocks in the foreground at almost a 45 degree angle.



NASA have countered this argument by emphasizing the short amount of time it took the astronauts to traverse the belt – meaning they received only very small doses of radiation.



In order to support claims that the moon landings were shot in a studio, conspiracy theorists had to account for the apparent low-gravity conditions, which must have been mimicked by NASA. It has been suggested that if you take the moon landing footage and increase the speed of the film x2.5, the astronauts appear to be moving in Earth’s gravity. As for the astronaut’s impressive jump height, which would be impossible to perform in Earth’s gravity, hidden cables and wires have been suggested as giving the astronauts some extra height. In some screenshots outlines of alleged hidden cables can be seen (the photograph above supposedly shows a wire, though it is extremely vague).



NASA has given conflicting excuses for the letter, on the one hand blaming a photographic developer for adding the letter as a practical joke, while on the other hand saying that it may simply have been a stray hair which got tangled up somewhere in the developing process.



Conspiracy theorists have suggested NASA printed the man-made objects over a legitimate photograph of the moon to hoax the landings – although if they really planned on doing this, then why they used cross-hairs in the first place is a mystery.



NASA has suggested that since the moon is much smaller than Earth, horizons can appear significantly closer to the human eye. Despite this, to say that the two hills visible in the photographs are miles apart is incontrovertibly false.