† Vital Moon †

     Anyone who has cared for a fish tank becomes aware of how things can go awry quickly if left unattended. Murphy's Law states: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and in the worst way possible".  We relearn everyday that nothing is truly maintenance free.  Today, through the study of Geology, Earth Science and Planetary Science it also becomes evident that the earth has been cared for. There is evidence of life on our world dating back to the Precambrian Era 542 million years ago, which Scientists say happened almost immediately as soon as conditions became suitable (stable liquid water). Progress transpired so quickly that scientists describe the occurrence as an explosion of life.  The first Dinosaurs emerged about 230 million years ago, and thrived for about 160 million years. Yet another 65 million years passed before humans. Why? If humans were introduced earlier, advanced civilization would have been impossible because of a lack of the necessary natural resources that would allow sophisticated development. We would not have fossil fuels, natural gas, or the organic material necessary for plastics, rubber, etc. We would not have cars, computers, power plants, electricity, etc.  Humans would be locked into a permanent stone age.  It becomes evident that human introduction was orchestrated in a logical predetermined sequence.  An extraordinary coincidence?

     Consider our moon. Complex computer analysis demonstrates that if the moon were removed, the axis of the earth would wobble dramatically like the inner planets Mercury, Venus and Mars, due to the gravitational influence of the outer planets in the solar system. If the Moon is eliminated from the mathematical model, the tilt of the Earth's spin axis becomes unstable and varies from 0 to 90 degrees, making life on earth impossible (1 2 3).  Models show the polar ice caps migrating to different parts of the equator every eleven years. Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Kenya, and Indonesia would take turns being under a mile of ice every eleven years. The moon is just the right size and distance to stabilize the earth’s axis, like an outrigger on a canoe. Planetary Scientists Bill Hartmann and Dr. Robin Canup (4), agree that without our moon, the earth would be devoid of life (5).  Another extraordinary coincidence?

     The moon appears in the sky the exact size as the sun. At the culminating point of total solar eclipse, the fit of sun and moon is so perfect that beads of sunlight can only penetrate through the rugged valleys on the lunar surface, creating the diamond ring effect. The sun is 400 times wider than the moon, but it is also 400 times further away. The two therefore appear the same size in the sky, a very unique situation among our solar system's nine planets and 174 known moons. No other moon does this. Visualize holding one of those high quality cameras with a detachable telescopic zoom lens aimed at the moon.  If you zoom in on the moon until it appears 15 times its size, that was the proportion it was 4.5 billion years ago, whereas scientists have evidence that life existed on earth during this Hadean Eon of Earth's history 3.8 billion to 4.5 billion years ago (6).  If you could zoom out till it disappears, this represents what will happen 4.5 billion years into the future when we lose the moon into space.  At this tiny fraction of time of human existence, the moon is at the exact focal point where it appears the same size in the sky as the sun.  Scientists say the odds of the human species being at this rare equilibrium point is similar to being struck by lightning twice in the same day.   Another extraordinary coincidence?

    Previously we were aware of about 140 moons in our solar system, recent discoveries via the Cassini-Huygens probe (currently exploring Saturn) increased that number to 174 (7). Of all these moons, only three appear as white as our moon (Jupiter’s Europa, Ganymede and Saturn’s Rhea), primarily because they contain surface ice in the frigid outer solar system. Our moon is curiously white and reflective (particularly for a natural satellite without surface ice), bathing the earth at night with a pleasing white incandescent white light. A soothing night-light in the sky (exactly the same disk-size as the sun), for night travelers.  It doesn't take much to discern that the cards in the deck are being stacked.  Another extraordinary coincidence, or is there a Supreme Being taking care of the fish tank?

     NASA orbital computer simulations verified that our moon is not a captured rogue satellite.  No matter what angle, distance, speed or trajectory is considered, the Earth does not capture the moon, it passes by.  These simulations also show that our moon (25% of the Earth in size) is too large to have formed around the Earth.  It is the general consensus of planetary scientists that Orpheus, a Mars sized planet that orbited between Earth and Mars impacted the Earth 4.5 billion years ago forming our moon (8, 9). Impact Scientist Dr. Jay Melosh verified the mathematical model (10).  After the Orpheus impact the moon was only four thousand miles away and appeared fifteen times larger in the sky.  Likewise, the gravitational effect of the moon on the earth was four thousand times greater.  Every wave was a tsunami, an Earth day went from naught to four hours.  We are losing our moon by one and a half inches per year, the moon is now two hundred and thirty four thousand miles from earth.  These Scientific determinations are verifiable several ways, including laser Lunar Laser Ranging equipment aimed at retro-reflectors placed on the Moon's lunar surface during the Apollo mission (11).  Ancient eclipse records as early as two thousand years ago confirm that a day was shorter than it is today.  Had it been constant, the solar eclipse of April 15, 0136 BC would have followed a different path and not have been recorded in Babylon (12). It is an astonishing cosmic coincidence that at the fractional time humans inhabit the earth, the moon is in perfect equilibrium in stabilizing our Earth's axis and appears in the night sky exactly the same size as the sun, for the first time in 4.5 billion years.  This can only be the result of impeccable planning, or an impossible coincidence.