Lunar Nature: The Moon and Earth Connection

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From old wives’ tales to scientifically proven effects, the moon makes an impact here on Earth in numerous ways.
From old wives’ tales to scientifically proven effects, the moon makes an impact here on Earth in numerous ways.
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You can count the number of birds that fly across a full moon to estimate how many birds are migrating.
You can count the number of birds that fly across a full moon to estimate how many birds are migrating.
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After coming out of its cocoon, a luna moth lives for one week, never eating, but focused on finding a mate.
After coming out of its cocoon, a luna moth lives for one week, never eating, but focused on finding a mate.
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The full moon compels the ruffed grouse to
The full moon compels the ruffed grouse to "crazy flights."
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Canada moonseed appears similar to wild grapes, but its pretty berries are dangerous.
Canada moonseed appears similar to wild grapes, but its pretty berries are dangerous.
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Canada moonseed berries contain a single crescent-moon shaped seed. The berries look appetizing, but are dangerous if eaten.
Canada moonseed berries contain a single crescent-moon shaped seed. The berries look appetizing, but are dangerous if eaten.
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Tide pools during low tide at Slip Point, Clallam Bay, Sekiu, WA.
Tide pools during low tide at Slip Point, Clallam Bay, Sekiu, WA.
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A rare, gorgeous moonbow over Victoria Falls, Africa.
A rare, gorgeous moonbow over Victoria Falls, Africa.

Look at the moon, and the last thing you think of is life. Suspended in space some 239,000 miles from Earth, it’s great for gazing at. But biologically, despite the recent discovery of water traces in shadowed craters, it’s a wasteland. Its air is unbreathable. Its temperatures are extreme: a blistering 243 degrees Fahrenheit during the month-long lunar day, followed by another month of deep-freeze night at 272 degrees below zero.

But that’s the moon on the moon. The moon and Earth are linked in countless ways that influence life here: Astronomers, for example, tell us that without the moon’s stabilizing gravity, our planet would wobble erratically on its axis, creating climatic chaos. Other connections are less consequential and more reflective of our culture: moonshine, honeymoons and cows jumping over the moon. But the moon is connected to Earth’s biological life, too, in ways both literal and figurative, direct and indirect. Here are a few examples.

Moon Birds

Each spring and fall, our skies fill with the beating wings of birds making their annual migrations?—?a phenomenon that has intrigued scientists for millennia. Aristotle was among the first to suggest an explanation for the birds’ mysterious seasonal appearances and disappearances. Some species, he thought, simply hid themselves in the ground until spring. “Swallows, for instance, have often been found in holes, quite denuded of their feathers,” he wrote.

Eclipsing all other far-fetched migration theories, though, was the one presented in 1703 in a booklet titled Whence Come the Stork and the Turtle, the Crane and the Swallow, When They Know and Observe the Appointed Time of Their Coming. Birds, suggested the publication’s author, fly to the moon to spend the winter.

  • Published on Mar 4, 2010
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