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Over four billion years ago, a young Earth collided with another large object thought to be around the size of Mars. Luckily it was mostly a glancing blow.

However, the planetary bump resulted in huge chunks of both Earth and the other objects coming loose and floating in orbit nearby.

Over millions of years these formed into our single moon. The moon has been constantly pelted by asteroids and other cosmic bullies just as the Earth has, but due to the lack of an atmosphere, the moon bears the scars from these attacks for a very long time. Many of the dark spots that we see on the surface are in fact huge impact craters that were filled with lava long after their creation.

These lava flows are so immense that they can cause gravitational anomalies that disrupt orbiting spacecraft. Our moon is unusually large and dense compared to other known moons, and this contributes to the profound changes that it has on the Earths climates and oceans.

Through the billions of years that the Earth and our moon have been locked together by gravity, our movements have changed significantly.

It is believed that the moon originally moved four times faster around the Earth than it does currently. This had profound impacts on the global tides, which follow the moons movements in their rising and falling. The Earths gravitational pull helped slow the moons pace to the current synchronous rotation, which is around 29 days to both rotate itself and orbit the Earth. This means that we always see the same side of the moon.

The gravity from the moon has also impacted the Earths movements as well, leading to slower spinning and less global wobbling. In short, the moon allows for more reliable seasons and winds that are less intense than seen elsewhere in the solar system.

Huge gravitational forces can also trap other objects in specific areas, and scientists believe they recently discovered proof of multiple ghost moons made up of dust clouds circling the planet. While these clouds lack the ability to be as bright as the moon, in truth the lunar surface is not the pearly white it can appear. Astronauts and scientists have compared the color of the moon to asphalt, which looks bright mainly due to reflective dust and the darkness of the space behind it.

Excitement for Martian exploration is causing many nations to leave our moon in the shadows in terms of further on-the-ground missions. Recent data is showing that the moon may have more to offer than previously thought, however.

It is believed that as comets and other celestial objects impact the moon and Earth, they bring with them traces of water, among other things. While most water on the lunar surface is quickly boiled away in sunlight due to the extremely thin atmosphere, scientists predict that more than 5,000 square miles of the surface is constantly dark.

These shadowy nooks and crannies, mostly near the poles and at the bottom of craters, were found to have the lowest temperatures ever recorded by a spacecraft at around -400 degrees Fahrenheit. Multiple projects used reflective analysis and other measures to determine that there is a surprising amount of frozen water sheltered in the dark.

Small amounts of water are also believed to be sheltered under layers of Martian dust, which is made of rocks and volcanic glass. Lunar water stores are estimated to be about as rich as those of the driest deserts on Earth. Perhaps they could be enough to help support a human colony in the future.

Brannen Basham and his wife, Jill Jacobs, operate Sprigglys Beescaping, a business dedicated to the preservation of pollinators. He can be reached at brannen.basham@gmail.com.

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The moon has shaped Earth in many ways - The Sylva Herald