Most other planets have numerous moons.
What would happen, if anything, to earth if it had say, 10 moons?
I’ve often wondered about that. Consider that the tides may have been responsible for the beginnings of life on our planet (assuming creationism to be pure bunk).site
With a greater number of moons, tides would be more chaotic. If these theories on the beginnings of life are correct, life would not have been given the chance to arise on Earth.
Other than that, I have no idea.
Well, they would have had to spend a lot more on the Apollo program.
I remember reading that our moon helps skim off some of the earth’s atmosphere, keeping the balance of gases, etc. perfect for life here. Perhaps more moons would affect this balance, and destroy all life as we know it. If I can find the article again I’ll post it. If not, you’ll have to take my unblemished, thoroughly reliable word for it.
I read awhile back that before the material that formed our moon coalesced, we did have multiple free-floating chunks up there. Plus, when they started to come together, the gravity had not yet shrunk it to it’s current size and it was much larger back then. Seems to me that would have made the night sky much brighter as well. Makes one curious about how this would have affected the nighttime predatory habits of the fauna that existed at the time.
Also, recall that out of 7 planets with companion bodies, only 2 have a satellite/companion that is quite large relative to the primary planet (Earth/Moon, Pluto/Charon) and in both cases it’s apparently the only companion.
A relatively very large companion tends to “sweep” any lesser ones, so multiple-moon systems would seem to require bodies relatively small vis-a-vis the primary or in widely-spaced orbits (Bad Astronomer may correct me on this). We could have a case not of having 10 of the current moon, but more like having the current moon divided in 10 unequal parts in a wide range of orbits.
As can be seen from the wide range of answers… speculation abounds. It really depends on what you mean by moon. If by moon you mean “copies of luna”, then there would be a considerable effect on tides. But, moons come in more than one size. As for the gas skimming properties of satellites, I’m a little dubious as to the actual effect this has on Earth. I’d say, though perhaps not negligable, then at least not worthy of consideration as a planetary changing phenomena. I’d say the biggest change would be the amount of light in the night sky at certain times. Get enough full moons up there and you might really make a luminous impression!
Any chance that the moon’s maria are the scars of other, smaller moons? Could that somehow explain why the maria are more prevalent on the side fixed toward Earth?
This idea has be discounted for a while now. It was a popular idea in the 60’s - 70’s time period.
Probably not much, since the moon formed billions of years before any terrestrial life existed – probably even before the first bits of slime formed in the tide pools…