Why did the life that flourished on the moon 4 billion years ago disappear, and where did it go?

As the closest natural celestial body to the earth, the moon has always had a special meaning and status in human hearts, which has given rise to many popular poems and legends.

In poetry, myths and legends, the moon is often described as an otherworldly place, teeming with life, countless rare birds and animals, and even large-scale architectural landscapes.

However, it would be too underestimated to think that the moon is merely a provider of material for human fantasy. According to decades of research, the moon not only helps the earth resist some meteorite attacks, but is also an important participant in the diversity of life on earth.

Many scientists have done a simulation, which is the change of the earth after losing the moon. Although the simulation methods are different, the results obtained are highly consistent: without the moon, there is a high probability that the earth will not breed life, or advanced life will not appear.

Why did you reach this conclusion? According to the law of universal gravitation, objects with mass have gravity, and the gravity of two objects with mass interacts with each other. That is to say, while the earth is pulling the moon with gravity, the moon's gravity is also acting on the earth. And this effect creates the tidal phenomenon.

Once the earth loses its moon, the ocean tide phenomenon on the earth will be close to disappearing, which will directly cause the ocean currents to slow down or even stop. Ocean currents are the key to regulating the earth's climate. You can imagine what the imbalance of the earth's climate will be. What terrible consequences will it cause.

On the other hand, the moon also plays a decisive role in the tilt angle of the earth. Because of the tilt angle of the earth, the four seasons change, and the birth and evolution of life on earth are closely related to the four seasons.

More importantly, the existence of the tilt angle allows the earth to "enjoy" solar radiation evenly, so that the tropics will not be too hot and the cold zones will not be too cold, which plays an important role in life activities. .

Once the moon is lost, the tilt angle of the earth will disappear, the four seasons will become history, and there will be only one season in a year, which is extremely fatal to life on earth. And if the earth had no moon from the beginning, then life would not be possible at all.

In fact, there is another problem about the moon that has always puzzled scientists: As a satellite of the earth, the moon is a bit strangely large. In the universe, the ratio of normal satellite to parent star volume is usually 1:1000, or even much lower than this ratio. But the ratio of the moon to the earth is not only larger than this, it is even larger to the somewhat astonishing ratio of 1:49.

Because of this, when systematic scientific research on the universe began in the early days, some scientists even proposed that the moon is not a satellite of the earth but its companion star. So far, there has been no unified explanation for the origin of the moon. Each theory has its own inconsistencies. This has also added a bit of mystery to the moon, so much so that some people have suggested that the existence of the moon may have some meaning. There is an element of "human design" involved.

To put it bluntly, some people believe that the moon may not be a natural celestial body, or that it may be deliberately placed next to the earth by certain forces in order to allow the earth to breed life.

Based on various speculations, NASA started the Apollo program in the 1960s, sending more than a dozen astronauts to the moon. At the same time, it also conducted detailed investigations and studies on the moon, and obtained many precious insights. Research information and experimental data.

Based on this information, University of Washington astrobiologist Dirk Schulze published a paper in the "International Journal of Astrobiology" in 2018, which stated that the moon had suitable conditions 4 billion years ago. The environment in which life exists.

Dilke Schulze said that during this period, a large amount of water vapor overflowed from the interior of the moon. The overflowing water vapor formed liquid water puddles on the lunar surface, and also formed a layer of water dense enough to sustain thousands of years. atmosphere for thousands of years.

Water and atmosphere are one of the necessary conditions for the birth of life, so Dirk Schulze does not rule out the possibility that the moon has produced life during this period. More importantly, the moon has been tidally locked by the earth, which causes one side of the moon to always face the earth, providing a relatively stable and safe environment for the moon to breed life, allowing the seeds of life to take root and germinate.

However, even if there may have been life on the moon, these lives are destined to perish, because the moon's own mass is too small, and the gravitational force generated cannot hold the atmosphere firmly.

Without the protection of the atmosphere, the solar wind will directly attack the lunar surface, which is fatal to life. In this vicious cycle day after day, the moon eventually became the desolate look we see now.

Perhaps you may think that whether there was life on the moon has nothing to do with humans, and that studying these is meaningless, but in fact it is wrong to think so.

Because if the moon really gave birth to life 4 billion years ago, it would at least prove that life may be ubiquitous in the universe, and the requirements for birth are not as strict as imagined. Extraterrestrial civilizations and extraterrestrial life can be of huge help.

At the same time, studying the origin and demise of lunar life can also give humans a more intuitive understanding of the living conditions of life, and have important reference significance for future interstellar colonization.